


Fire and Dark

by staringatthesky



Category: Twilight Series - All Media Types, Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-08
Updated: 2015-06-01
Packaged: 2018-03-16 22:10:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 24
Words: 52,979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3504557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/staringatthesky/pseuds/staringatthesky
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Because before there was Jane of the Volturi there was a little girl and her brother. Condemned to die she saw the flames and felt the heat of hatred, but Aro took her for his own and Jane learned that fire doesn't purify and sometimes there is no redemption.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Finding

**Author's Note:**

> A/N – I’m trying something different this time. After writing all my lovely Cullen women I’m going over to the dark side to give the Volturi a try! I thought I’d have a look at Jane, and her story of change and joining the Volturi, which sounds rather interesting.
> 
> However, a few little historical notes first! In the guide, Jane and Alec were said to have been from England and joined the Volturi “by 800AD”, after an attempt to have them burned as witches. 
> 
> This is a really sketchy time in history and not a lot is known about it. The Romans had long left Britain, and the Anglo-Saxons were the dominant power. England itself did not match the boundaries of today, and was broken up into several different kingdoms and sub-kingdoms. In the hundred years between 700AD and 800AD Christianity spread throughout Britain, replacing the old pagan gods of the Saxons. This was done without full scale war but there would certainly have been periods of tension between Christians and Pagans during the gradual changeover.
> 
> Early Christianity in Anglo-Saxon Britain was not overly concerned with witchcraft. In fact some early Christians said that belief in witches was ‘unchristian’ as it attributed too much power to Satan. So this was not a time in history where witch hunts were happening and, incidentally, even when witch hunts did happen later on, witches in England were hung or drowned rather than burned. 
> 
> But since I’m writing a story rather than an historical treatise, I can mess about with the facts as well as things unknown and make it all suit my purposes! So this isn’t exactly historically accurate, but it’s close enough. 
> 
> The other historical issue that I’m messing with here is language. There is no way Alec and Jane would be speaking the same language as the Volturi, but for the sake of the story everyone is talking in a common language, and I’m using the word ‘witch’ as it’s what we’ll all be familiar with in this context. 
> 
> There’s also going to have to be a few OCs in this story too. I tend to avoid them if possible, but most of the Volturi that we know from the books just weren’t around at this point in time!
> 
> As always, these characters are Stephenie Meyer’s creation and I’m just borrowing them to play with. Questions, comments and suggestions are always welcome (and quite frankly, might be needed here…how do I go from being a Rosalie-girl to messing around with JANE???)

**_ Exodus 22:18 _ ** _Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live._

Aro was bored. It was inevitable, in a life as long as his had been, that there would be times of inactivity and placid peace – _boring_ peace! – but nevertheless Aro was restless.

He glanced around the library. Across from him sat Marcus, a book open in front of him but his eyes staring beyond the page into the fog of his own memories. Didyme, Marcus’ wife and Aro’s own sister, and all the misery and heartache Marcus had felt since her death. Such a _tragic_ loss, Aro thought. Necessary of course, but tragic all the same…and Marcus had turned out to be _such_ a disappointment! Of course he should be sad, Aro thought magnanimously, but there was no need for this endless rumination on what he had lost. After all, surely they had enough to do to keep control of the vampire world?

Caius was writing, relaxed and calm. He had been spending time with Corin again, Aro deduced, taking advantage of her talent for inducing contentment. He’d been visiting her more often lately, Aro thought with a faint frown. Perhaps _too_ often – Corin’s talent could become like an addiction and it wasn’t clear how much exposure it took. While Aro preferred the more amiable and easily led Caius to the sadistic, angry Caius, he knew he needed at least one effective ruler at his side.

Hearing the noise in the hallway of someone approaching, Aro raised his head. It was Felix, a recent addition to the Guard, useful for his enormous strength and skill at fighting. And below his footsteps Aro could hear lighter steps, ones he had not heard in some time. His face lighting up with pleasure Aro clasped his hands together.

“Friends, it’s Philippe returning to us!”

As Marcus and Caius looked up, Felix rapped heavily on the door and then opened it at Aro’s command.

“A vampire named Philippe,” he announced. “He said you would want to see him.” There was a look of uncertainty in Felix’s face as he faced the Three across the room. He was very new, and his new masters could be somewhat capricious.

But this time Aro smiled down at him benevolently. “Of course Felix. Philippe is a very old friend! Thank you for showing him in, and now you may go.”

Felix disappeared, leaving behind the vampire who had accompanied him.

Philippe was tall and burly, his long fair hair braided away from his face into a windswept tangle at the back, and he looked like nothing more or less than the Norse gods of his ancestors. He was dressed in a long tunic and wore a wooden cross hanging around his neck, and Aro’s mouth quirked up into a smile as he took him in.

“A priest, Philippe?” he asked in amusement.

Philippe laughed, far more relaxed in the presence of The Three than Felix had been. After all, Philippe had known them much longer and his usefulness to the Volturi would be hard to replace. Strong, powerful vampires like Felix were easy to come across, but what Philippe was able to do…

“An excellent disguise for travelling about the countryside,” he said cheerfully. “No one suspects a man of the cloth! A sermon here and there, the occasional baptism, helping a few souls cross to the afterlife…very simple. And of course, one gains much information like this.”

Aro fought to keep his face neutral. Of course, Philippe could guess how much Aro wanted what only Philippe was able to provide, but it wouldn’t do to seem overeager.

“You bring me news then?”

“Yes.” Philippe’s light heartedness vanished, and he looked at Aro intently. “From England. They’re only children, twins…”

“Twins?” Aro frowned. “We’ve had tales of twins before, you know how those superstitions go, and it’s always been nothing…”

“Not this time.”

The certainty in Philippe’s voice made even Marcus sit up and pay attention.

“A boy and a girl. I heard tell of them and it made me prick up my ears. The tales were things I’ve heard before, of the children being able to ill wish those who cross them or bring good luck if they are so inclined. Common stories, especially in some of these godforsaken, isolated villagers.” Philippe hesitated for a moment. “I felt it might be something different this time. The stories about them had travelled, and such tales are usually a local affair. The children themselves are very young, barely eight years old…I thought there must be _something_ going on for the villagers to be holding two infants in such frightened awe!”

“So you saw them?” Aro prompted. “And?”

“I think we should watch them. Closely…they may be just what we need.”

“Are you sure?” Aro asked. “Truly sure? Because you’ve been wrong in the past, Philippe…”

“I have never seen anything like it,” Philippe said quietly. “I cannot predict what may manifest, but I would gamble my life on both of them becoming something extraordinary when they are turned.”

He held out his hands and Aro took them, and for a long moment there was silence as Aro took Philippe’s thoughts and memories of his time away. And although his face betrayed nothing, he felt his spirit lift and fly as he saw what Philippe had given him. He was so very certain, and how very _beautiful_ it might be! Aro thought rapturously. Not for the first time Aro marvelled at his good fortune in turning Philippe and bringing him into his fold.

Aro rarely turned humans to vampires himself. He was content to keep vampire numbers small, and he wasn’t particularly interested in the extra obligations of being a creator. But there were always exceptions, and Philippe had been perhaps the most fortunate of all exceptions.

As a human Philippe had been an abbot and he was a fierce and vocal preacher and warrior for Christ. Philippe had a knack for befriending men who were able to assist him in his climb to power, either through their own works or their connections, and despite his youth he had been appointed abbot of one of the larger and more prosperous monasteries.

While Aro had no particular quarrel with the church, he did have a perverse delight in occasionally turning men of God into monsters and seeing how quickly all their beliefs crumbled in the face of the supernatural darkness they found themselves in. Philippe, with his loud and determined preaching and his blazing belief, was just the type that Aro found the most entertaining. Philippe was also astonishingly attractive, and Aro had never seen the point in turning anyone who was homely…if you would have to look upon someone for eternity, wouldn’t you want them to be as beautiful as possible? So Aro took the beautiful human Philippe and bit him, and waited for him to rise.

In one sense Philippe was a disappointment. He adjusted to his vampirism extremely quickly, despite the religious convictions of his human life. The complete upheaval of all he had lived and believed didn’t seem to bother him at all, much to Aro’s chagrin.

But then he discovered what Philippe could do, and all disappointment was subsumed by Aro’s victorious delight in the talent he’d collected without even realising it.

Philippe’s talent was to see the potential in a human for what they might become in their vampire life. He became an integral part of the Guard as he became Aro’s ‘finder’, searching out humans who carried around them an aura of power that only Philippe’s vampire eyes were able to see. Humans that could be bitten and made vampire, and who would hopefully manifest talents that the Volturi Guard could make use of.

It was a nebulous gift. Philippe could not predict what form the talent might take, and there had been times where he was altogether wrong. Aro chafed at the mistakes but put up with them because there was no one else who could do what Philippe did. And with Corin and Charmion’s gifts becoming so essential to the smooth and successful running of the Volturi, Aro wanted other talents at his command. So Philippe travelled, exploring the world in search of humans that might become the kind of vampires that Aro wanted.

And now he had come home, and his mind carried visions of the twins.

There really was no doubt as Aro saw them in Philippe’s memory. Scrawny, dirty children, with blue eyes and flaxen hair under the grime, _so_ unappealing…except for the aura that Philippe had seen and that Aro now saw. An aura surrounding them that was so strong it glowed, a sense of potential so strong that it made Aro tingle.

“Oh my,” he said quietly. “Oh my.”


	2. Eostre Morning

_8 years old._

It was cold and something was biting me. I slapped at the flea that was on my neck and rose up to my knees in the straw, but Bran wasn’t there. Only Mother, asleep with my brother Alec curled up into her side.

Without waking them I crawled from the pile of straw and slipped outside, past the curtain blocking the door. Outside it was grey, the sun still not risen, and I picked some straw out of my hair as I coughed in the morning air.

There was a noise at the edge of the clearing and Bran loped out, coming towards me with his funny lopsided walk. The wolfhound had something in his mouth and he dropped it at my feet as I leaned against his furry shoulder, grateful for his warmth. He’d given me the remains of a fox. It was only the head and spine and tail, he must have scavenged it rather than killed it, and I patted his nose and said thank you but gave it back to him. Mother and Alec and I couldn’t eat that.

Bran crunched the bones happily, and then ran after me as I headed off into the forest. It was the spring feast day, and it was my task to collect the flowers for the ritual. It was still mostly dark as I slipped silently through the trees, but I wasn’t afraid. I had Bran, and I could never get lost in the forest. I knew all the paths and the hidden places, all the trees and hills and dips, and even in the pre-dawn darkness I knew I’d be able to find the early blossoms I needed.

Bran slunk along beside me. He was a rangy dog, grey with black markings, like the hounds at the manor house. I believed he had been one of theirs once, but he became mine the day I hauled the half-grown puppy from the river. He had been almost dead from a combination of his time in the river and the loss of blood from his broken and mangled leg, but I had carried him home to Mother anyway. She tied his muzzle closed, cut off the maimed leg and then cauterised and bandaged the stump. We didn’t know if he’d live or die, but he was tough and strong and before we knew it he was hopping around our clearing on his three remaining legs. He became an expert scavenger and was even able to hunt on his three legs, at least enough to keep himself fed and occasionally even giving us something to add to the stew pot.

I found the wildflowers I was looking for and collected them in the basket, until the pile grew so high that the blossoms overflowed. The stars were beginning to fade and so I ran back to the hut, anxious not to be late.

Alec was milking the goat, and I was glad that I had been spared that chore. The nanny goat was a good milker, but she was mean and cantankerous for all that and I avoided her as much as I could. She accepted Alec’s hands on her much more easily than mine.

Mother was by the fire, and she smiled at me and called me to come sit beside her. She was weaving vines into braided circles for our wreaths, and she smiled again as I showed her my flowers. She demonstrated how to thread the flower stems into the wreaths and then I took over, turning the green leafed wreaths into beautiful, flower-bedecked crowns. Three of them, one for Mother, one for Alec, and one for me.

The three of us were the only ones who would celebrate the spring feast in the sacred place with the ritual and the offerings for Eostre that day. Mother had said that it wasn’t always that way, and that when she was a very little girl there were others who kept the old ways and worshipped the old gods. But they died, or turned to the new church, and then it was only us.

Everyone else in the village would be in the Christian church for their paschal services that Eostre’s day. I didn’t know what they did there, but I didn’t understand how they could celebrate the spring in a small, dark building instead of outside where you could see it in every bud and blade of grass, and breathe in the goddess with the very air.

While I finished making the flower wreaths, Mother collected the offerings. The best of the flowers I collected had been kept aside for one, and then there was a bowl of the fresh goat milk and some of the little round cakes that Mother had baked the previous day. Looking at them made me hungry, and I knew we’d have less bread to eat that day because of them. Flour was scarce at the end of winter and we hadn’t had much to trade. I watched Mother gather the little cakes and sighed.

Mother knew what I was thinking, because as she wrapped the cakes in a cloth and dropped them into the front of her tunic, she laughed at me. “Don’t fret Janey. Eostre is the goddess of spring, and soon there will be so much growing to eat that you’ll get quite fat.”

That was probably true. Mother and Alec and I had been turning over the soil for the garden since the frost left, and the goat was starting to fill out which meant more milk. Winter was always a hungry time, and things were easier when the days began to grow longer.

Mother put the wreath of flowers on my head. Some of the ends of the vines caught in the snarls in my hair and I yelped, but she ignored me and then went and did the same to Alec before she put on her own flowers.

Mother looked beautiful. As a child I thought that this was just what Eostre herself must look like, with Mother’s long fair hair and blue eyes, and the little dimples in her cheeks. Her tunic was as old and dirty as mine, but Mother always stood up straight and walked like a queen. I hugged her impulsively, and she patted my head and straightened up my flowers.

“Come along my little blossoms, it’s time to go to the sacred spring.”

The three of us, and Bran, were only a little procession, but we tried to do the Goddess honour. Mother sang as we walked and Alec and I both took a turn with the flute. We had been practising all winter, but it sounded different played out in the forest as we made the long trek through the pre-dawn light to the spring.

We got there in time for the dawn. The sacred spring, with the water icy and still beneath the ferns, was just as it always had been. Even in the hottest summer the water there never dried up and the ground around was always mossy and green and damp. There was a flat stone by the water for our altar, and I brushed it clear of dirt, ready for the offerings.

“Thank you Janey,” Mother said, “Ready?”

Alec and I nodded, and Mother led us around the spring in a circle. Seven times, the magic number. Then we faced the dawn, and Mother held our hands and said, her voice high and strong, “ _The Goddess of dawn sends her maidens before her as heralds to announce the coming of the light. There in the East the light grows as the miracle approaches. Eostre, bring the light. Eostre, bring the day. Eostre bring the spring!”_

We waited, standing in a circle with our hands clasped, as the sky lightened. Then the sun broke over the horizon and the water of the sacred spring began to glitter, and Mother smiled at us, a smile like the dawn as it made her face brighten.

“Come little ones,” she said happily. “It’s time to lay our offerings at the feet of the goddess in praise and entreaty.”

Mother gave Alec the bowl of milk he’d collected, and took the bread she’d baked for herself. I had the flowers I had collected, and for a moment I held them close to my face to breathe in the scent. Then, one by one, we knelt by the altar at the spring that had always been dedicated to the goddess, and laid down our gifts.

_“We hail the Goddess of spring,_

_of vibrancy, of stirring bounty,_

_of the waking earth_

_that readies itself for the seed._

_We hail the Goddess of sunshine,_

_and cycles and changes,_

_and all good and terrifying things._

_We pray for fertility in our works,_

_of minds, and hearts, and hands._

_We pray for blessings,_

_and the gifts_

_of hope’s manifestation._

_We hail the Goddess of Spring_

_as her bounty covers the land,_

_Eostre, be thou praised.” *_

There was dancing then, because Eostre day was a celebration after all, and Mother hugged and kissed us until Alec and I were breathless with laughter. After a long, dark winter the arrival of spring was something to celebrate.

Then Mother told us to wait a little at the spring while she went home ahead of us to prepare a special Eostre breakfast. Eggs, she told us in a conspiratorial whisper, and even though I knew she had stolen them and could have lost a hand for her thievery I couldn’t stop my glee. I was hungry, and eggs were a rare treat since our last hen had stopped laying.

Mother laid her flower crown at the foot of the altar before she went, and Alec grimaced as he took his off and it pulled at his hair. I kept mine on as I knelt at the side of the spring and leaned over it, trying to see my reflection in the water. I hadn’t seen how I looked for a long time.

Alec knelt beside me, his reflection joining mine. “We still look the same,” he commented. “Do you think we always will?”

“Not when we’re grown up,” I said after a moment’s thought. “You’ll grow a beard.”

Alec laughed. “You might too,” he said teasingly, before he screamed as I pushed against his neck and shoved his head towards the water. His scream disappeared in a rush of bubbles as his face broke the surface of the spring, and I laughed and released him.

“You…!” Alec grabbed me and tried to push me towards the spring, but I rolled away and then we were wrestling, laughing and shouting as we both tried to gain the upper hand.

Not only did we look the same, we were the same height and weight and our wrestling matches could go on forever But this one stopped abruptly when we heard Bran howl. It was a wild, terrified sound that made the hairs on my neck stand up, and then it dropped down to cowed whimper as Bran streaked past us and away down the path, faster than I knew his three legs could carry him.

“What’s wrong?” Alec gasped, shocked. “He’s never…”

His words faded, as the sounds of a light, tinkling laugh floated through the clearing. As one Alec and I turned and looked up to see two strangers standing at the tree line and watching us. We scrambled to our feet and I instinctively clutched Alec’s hand tightly, staring at those men whose like I had never seen before.

_I don’t like them. I’m frightened._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N –  
> *Galina Krasskova  
> There’s very little information about the rituals and beliefs of the pagan Saxons. Parts of the little there is have also had their accuracy and authenticity questioned, including that worship and belief in Eostre, the spring Goddess. Due to all that I’ve had to make this ritual up, using bits and pieces from similar social groups of the time (there are similarities with the Norse and Germanic gods worshipped by pagans in those cultures) and some of the modern pagan practices. I hope it reads okay, and I also hope that I haven’t offended anyone with my lack of knowledge on this subject. I mean no disrespect.


	3. Strangers

The two strangers didn’t look like anyone I had ever seen before. Their faces were shiny with being so clean, and I wouldn’t have believed it possible to make fabric so fine as the stuff their tunics were made from. One was tall and fair, the other man shorter and his hair dark. Their hair wasn’t tangled and matted like mine, but combed smooth until it glistened in the sun. They were wearing cloaks made of fur that looked so soft and warm I couldn’t help wanting to rub it against my cheek. All this finery, better than anything I’d seen even on the village lord…I was almost dazzled at the thought of such wealth.

_But what are they doing at our sacred spring, so far from the village and the road? They must have horses or carts and servants if they’re so rich, so how could they possible have come through the thickness of the forest? And given the way they came, how did Alec and I not hear them approach?_

Then the dark haired man pushed his hood back and all questions vanished from my mind. The eyes that were examining me so intently were as red as blood, shockingly bright against the stark whiteness of his skin. Alec must have seen at that moment too, because his hand suddenly tightened so much on mine that it hurt.

I don’t know why we both didn’t turn and run. It wouldn’t have done any good, of course, but we couldn’t have known that then.

“You still see it then, Philippe?” the dark haired man questioned.

“Oh yes. Stronger, if anything.” The taller man stepped closer to his friend. and as Alec and I stared the first man took his hand and held it for a moment, looking at us thoughtfully.

“Marvellous,” he murmured, and then smiled at us, white teeth showing and red eyes gleaming. “Good morning children. I am Lord Aro.”

Every instinct I had screamed at me of danger then. That smile…the dread crawled through my stomach and I felt my knees tremble. I tried to back away then, but Alec seemed almost hypnotised by them and even when I tugged his hand he didn’t take a single step away. I couldn’t leave him alone, so I pressed my lips together and stood firm.

“Good morning Lord Aro,” Alec said, which made the man smile more broadly.

Lord Aro’s eyes scanned the little clearing, eyeing the sacred spring and the small collection of offerings. “Observing the days of the old gods,” he said to the taller man, who must be Philippe. “Very quaint.”

“Quite rare in this part of the country. They’re possibly the only ones left who do,” Philippe answered. “The Christians took a strong hold in this region.”

Lord Aro smiled at us again, his teeth eerily white and set square and strong. “Come over here children.” He beckoned us forward with a long, pale finger.

Alec, who had always been more biddable than I was, started to step forward. _Oh no, you don’t!_ I wrapped both my hands around his wrist and yanked him back to my side.

“No,” I said flatly. “We don’t know you.”

I was still poised to run. The men frightened me, but I was sure that if I ran I would be able to lose them somewhere in the forest. They couldn’t possibly know it as well as I did, and no grown man could be as fleet of foot as Alec and I were over the rough ground and through the tangled foliage.

“No?” Lord Aro looked almost astonished. “Come child, none of that! I have introduced myself to you and I wish for you to come closer so we can meet properly.” He shook his head and clicked his tongue when I didn’t move. “Philippe…”

I didn’t even have a moment to blink, and then the tall Philippe was by my side, gripping my wrist in his ice-cold hands.

_How did he do that so fast?_

I screeched and struggled, twisting in an effort to escape the feel of his fingers around my arm, scratching at his skin with my fingernails and kicking out at him. But I may as well have been fighting with the ancient oak at Woden’s altar for all the good it did, and Philippe deposited me by Lord Aro’s side with seemingly no effort at all.

“Quite the little wildcat, aren’t you?” Lord Aro said, smiling in evident amusement. “Now, behave as your brother does and give me your hand.” As quick as a striking snake he caught my hand in his before I could react.

My small hand was lost in the grip of his long, strong fingers, and I froze. I had never, ever been so afraid. His hand had the solidness and immovability of stone, and the red eyes gazing down at me made me tremble with the inhumanness of him. _What is this evil spirit?_ Even when he smiled and relaxed his hand slightly I felt no better.

“Jane,” he murmured. “And Alec…”

He had my brother’s hand in his too, and Alec was staring up at him with the terrified gaze of a rabbit trapped by a hound and knowing he is about to die.

“Splendid work Philippe!” Lord Aro said brightly, dropping our hands and wiping his own fastidiously on his cloak. “I believe I am quite convinced…I think it’s possible we have something extraordinary here.”

“I’m sure of it,” Philippe said, his voice low, and I felt as though my belly was full of birds, beating their frantic, fluttering wings against me. “How do you wish to proceed, Master?”

Lord Aro’s brows lowered, and he pursed his lips in clear irritation. “Such a pity they’re so young! But of course they must return with us, they’ll grow…”

“Are you sure that’s wise, my lord? It’s never worked before, bringing humans to Volterra and keeping them unchanged. The temptation can be a little much for some of our friends, and two children...” Philippe’s voice trailed away.

“You may be right.” Lord Aro sniffed. “Child blood…under the filth it does smell rather delectable. And I want these two! I cannot risk them in Volterra. They will be safer here, living in the dirt with their mother and saying their pretty words to their deities until we have a use for them.”

“Of course. I shall watch though, my Lord Aro, as I always do, and keep them safe if it in my power to do so.”

“It _is_ in your power to do so.” Lord Aro’s voice was as cold and hard as ice. “They will come to no harm Philippe, I have commanded it.”

While they had been talking together, I had started a slow, silent retreat with Alec matching me step for step. I halted as Lord Aro turned his gaze back to me, his dark red eyes seeming to pin me in place with their intensity. “What do you think, sweetling?” he asked softly. “You will grow strong and healthy and keep yourself safe until the time when I will come for you? You will be mine then…does that please you?”

“No,” I whispered, although I could not bring myself to move. I wondered where Bran had gone, and cursed him for his cowardice in leaving us alone. Not that I could blame him, I admitted to myself, not when these monsters in human form stood in front of me with their terrible red eyes. “I won’t… _we_ won’t!”

Alec shook his head and said nothing, and I saw the way his lips pinched together to hide their tremble and the tears shone in my eyes. My courage came for my brother where it wouldn’t come for me, and I dared to look the monster in the face.

“I don’t know you and I don’t _want_ to know you. I’ll never belong to you! I don’t care if you’re a lord…you don’t come into the sacred place of the Goddess and make threats!”

I wished the goddess would come to my aid. Rise from the sacred pool and smite them…but she was Eostre, the goddess of spring and life and rebirth. I knew she wouldn’t come to be my sword of vengeance.

“Dear child, it is no threat,” Lord Aro said, with another smile that showed his wicked white teeth and made his red eyes gleam. “Merely a promise that one day there will be more for you than this.”

That gave me pause. More for me than this? More than being the scorned daughter of an almost destitute herb woman? In my secret heart I had sometimes thought that I didn’t belong here, that I should have been seated in the grand hall of one of the lord’s castles and have the power to make people afraid…was this monster _really_ offering me something I might want?

But when I opened my mouth to ask a question they were gone, as suddenly as if they were never there. They left nothing behind but a breath of wind that made the leaves quiver, and the scent of something foreign.

Alec turned and hugged me, his face on my shoulder. “Oh, Jane!”

I hugged him back, shivering even though I knew the danger was gone. “I don’t understand,” I whispered. “Who was that? How…” My voice trailed away. There were so many questions, and I knew Alec had no more answers than I did.

“Do you really think they want to take us away?” Alec whispered. His face was as white as the vanished strangers.

“They seemed to change their minds,” I answered. “At least…that one did. Lord Aro.”

Just saying his name sent a thrill down my spine. Fear, intrigue…I didn’t know what I felt once he was gone. Already my mind was trying to make sense of it, trying to make it seem as though the two of them were not so terrifying, not so unworldly, just ordinary men who were perhaps peculiar…

“I think they had magic.”

Alec’s voice was shaking, and I thought perhaps he spoke truth. Magic at least gave an explanation for the unexplainable, and the two men were like nothing I had ever known.

I hugged my brother again. “I think so too.”

“Do we tell Mother?” Alec asked quietly.

I saw my own doubt reflected in his face. Alec and I had lived through only eight years, but even then Mother was more of a child than we were. She was sweet and loving, but anything in the world that is harsh or cruel or difficult reduced her to a kind of frightened bewilderment.

“No,” I said at last.

Alec nodded. I didn’t need to explain, not to my brother. From the moment we first drew breath it had always been he and I together, two halves of the same, and that was the way it should always be.


	4. Tales of the Uncanny

_13 years old._

The air was hot and still, the forest around me almost silent. The birds and animals didn’t like the heat any more than I did, and in the face of the scorching midday sun they had all taken to the ground or the shade to get away from it.

Bran came loping out of the forest, his long pink tongue hanging low, and made a beeline for me, rubbing his heavy head against my shoulder. I scratched him behind his ears and looked up expectantly, waiting until Alec came into view through the trees. His pale blue eyes were sparkling as he grinned at me.

“Did you get some berries then?” I asked him.

“A basket full of them,” Alec answered. “But I found something even better than that.”

I jumped to my feet and took the basket of woven grasses from him, scooping a handful of the dark red berries into my mouth, relishing the tart sweetness of them. “Oh, they’re good…I was thinking perhaps we should dry some of the fruit, since the sun is so fierce and hot at the moment. It would be nice to have some once the growing season is over…”

“I found a beehive,” Alec interrupted me, his eyes gleaming. “It’s a big one. If we can smoke the bees out and get the honeycomb, I bet we can sell it to the lord’s house.”

All thoughts of drying berries were immediately forgotten. A honeycomb could be valuable, and we were sorely in need of trade goods. “Come on then,” I said, scrambling to my feet. “Get the flint.”

Alec grabbed the flint from above the lintel and led the way back into the forest, retracing his tracks from earlier to lead us to the beehive. I heard it before I saw it, the low buzzing hum almost making my ears itch.

“Move slowly,” Alec cautioned. “We don’t want to get them more riled than we can help.”

I rolled my eyes. “Do you think I’d be anything other than careful? In truth, the fire getting away from us is what we should be more concerned with. With everything so dry the whole forest could go up in smoke.”

Alec frowned, but had to concede I was right. The long, hot summer had scorched the trees and even here, deep in the forest, there was not the usual layer of damp, decaying green on the ground. “I’ll clear a patch,” he said at last. “You go and find some new green growth to make the smoke.”

By the time I returned to the tree, my hands full of damp greenery, Alec had already struck the flint and made a small fire on a cleared patch of dirt. Above his head the bees were buzzing a little more agitatedly. I crouched down beside my brother and half smothered the little fire with the greenery, and a moment later drifts of thick, cloying smoke began rising up to encircle the hive.

Coughing a little, my eyes streaming, I waited with Alec until we thought the bees would be subdued from the smoke. “Ready to run?” I asked, my voice hoarse.

Alec nodded and began backing away as I raised a stick and began pushing at the hive. I wanted to keep it as intact as possible. Most of the bees were stunned by the smoke, but as the hive began to swing more began coming out, buzzing angrily. I felt a sharp sting in my arm and I swore and shoved hard enough at the hive to make it fall. I didn’t wait to see it crack open though, fleeing to take shelter beside Alec a short distance away.

I scraped the bee sting from my skin with a fingernail, wincing. At least it was only the one. Squinting I could see the hive beside the fire, smoke curling around it and honey oozing from the cracks running through it. “Come on,” I said. “Let’s go and get it.”

The smoke still issuing from the fire had continued to daze the bees emerging from the broken hive, and between us Alec and I sustained only a few stings as we gathered up the broken pieces and headed back towards home. We wiped the site of the stings with honey and then sucked the sticky sweetness of it off our hands.

“Should we take it home?” Alec stopped and looked at me. “Or take it straight to the manor house? They’ll pay well for the honey, as well as the comb. If we take it home…”

He didn’t finish, but I knew what he meant. If we took it home then Mother would eat it, as like as not, and we’d be left with so much less to trade. “Sell it,” I said practically. “There’s so much we need.”

It felt like a longer trip to the village in the hot summer sun and I half wished we’d waited for the cooler evening. But the honey smelled sweet and tasted delicious when I broke off a piece of comb and sucked on it, and the thought of what we might get for it cheered me enough to keep going.

The village was quiet. There were a group of boys fighting with stick swords on the green, but they fell silent and still as Alec and I passed by. The women collecting water at the river stopped their gossip and kept their eyes down as Alec and I crossed. The water was so low that there was no need to use the stone bridge and we simply walked across the stony bottom, enjoying the feel of the cool water on our feet.

I heard the low hum of their conversation begin again as we passed out of sight, and I gritted my teeth. “They’re all so _stupid._ ”

“You know what they think,” Alec said quietly. “They think we _do_ things.”

“I wish it were _true_ ,” I said savagely. “I wish I could _make_ it happen, make _all_ the people I hate have bad things happen. And I’d start right in with _them_ ,” I added, nodding back towards the women at the river.

Alec didn’t answer as the manor house came into view. There were chickens scratching in the yard, and two of the hounds that looked so much like my Bran were stretched out, panting, in the shade. A little girl, picking at scabs on her knees, watched us warily as we walked towards the back.

“Jane and Alec! I wouldn’t have thought to see you about on this hot day.” Agnes, the woman who cooked for the lord and had warmed his bed since his wife’s death, was plucking a chicken by the door and she smiled at our approach. “What can I do for you?”

“We’ve got a beehive,” I told her. “All the comb and the honey too- we haven’t kept any back.”

Agnes looked at it with sharp eyes. “Aye, that’s a big one. I think we can do something…what were you hoping to trade it for?”

Alec let me do the bargaining, although there wasn’t a great deal to it. Agnes was canny, but she was not immune to the rumours about Alec and I that were whispered through the village and she was not mean when she filled my tunic with apples in return for the hive. There were stories of misfortune coming to those who raised our ire, and tales of blessings for those who traded with us on generous terms or did something that pleased us. Fables that should have been able to be laughed away…except for the seam of truth that ran below them.

Beasts _had_ sickened and died after the yeoman had chased Alec and I from his fields. A crop of root vegetables _had_ inexplicably failed after I was discovered stealing some and whipped. A boy who taunted us relentlessly _did_ come suddenly down with the pox, and then just as suddenly improved and came back to health after his mother had implored us to forgive him and begged for his life. The lord, who had always been generous with his trading, gained favour with his highers and his sons and daughters grew healthy and strong as the sun shone and the rain fell on his crops and they flourished.

So the stories were told in low voices and people believed us to be uncanny. It didn’t help that Alec and I were almost unnaturally alike. Twins were an ill-omen in our village, and the two of us both so similar despite being girl and boy, inspired unease when we were seen together. It didn’t help that our mother was a simpleton who earned her living, and ours, by peddling herbs and medicines and trading what we found in the forest. It didn’t help that we worshipped the old gods and refused to set foot in the house of the new.

It could all be attributed to nature, both good and ill fortune alike, but the villagers looked upon us with suspicion nonetheless. The stories were told in hushed tones and the tales spread and the legends grew, and none of us could have known where it would end.


	5. Mother

_*** Just a warning that this chapter involves the birth and death of a baby***_

* * *

 

Mother was sitting outside, carefully stitching together some of the soft rabbit skins Alec and I had been tanning over the summer. With a soft smile Mother held it up to show me and Alec.

“It will be a wrap for the baby,” she told us cheerfully. “I’ve used the softest furs, so it will be cosy and warm.”

I cursed silently when I saw that she was using some of the larger ones with the thicker fur, the ones I had intended to trade. Rabbits were so plentiful it astounded me that there was a market for cured skins, but many people weren’t interested in the work it took to make the small skins soft and pliable. Easier for them to have Alec and I do the work for a few coins for a bundle, or something in trade.

I didn’t say anything to Mother though. She rarely remembered what I told her, and I doubted she’d even considered that I might have had plans for the skins.

Besides, I didn’t like talking about the baby that was coming and Mother’s preparations for it. I didn’t know which of the village men had filled her belly and I was angry with her for allowing such a thing to happen. We had enough trouble feeding the three of us…what were we supposed to do with a baby?

“Alec and I found a beehive,” I told her instead, changing the subject. “We took it to the manor house and traded them for some apples. They’re a bit wormy and well past their best, but we got a lot of them and we can bake them or stew them.” I scratched Bran’s ears as he came and sniffed at the apples I held in my tunic.

Mother struggled to rise, and Alec ran to help her as I piled the apples in a basket and hung it from the hook, high in the hut. Hopefully high enough to keep it away from the rats and squirrels for a little while, I thought, as I grabbed the heavy earthenware jug and carried it outside.

Mother was slightly hunched over, her hand on her belly and her face strained. Despite my frustration with the situation I couldn’t help but feel a stirring of pity. Mother was so uncomfortable, and she _must_ have been feeling anxious at the thought of the impending birth. Her mother, my grandmother, had been a wisewoman who attended the village women at their laying-ins and all of us knew the odds for a successful, healthy birth.

“Will it be soon?” I asked, half unwillingly.

Mother nodded and straightened up. “By the next full moon I would think. I hope it’s soon, because it’s rather awful to be so big in this heat!”

“I’ll go and get some fresh, cool water,” I promised, pouring what little remained of the lukewarm water in the jug out and then hefting up the heavy container in my arms. “Alec got some berries and we’ve got the apples now too, that will make a nice meal when I get back.”

I took my time walking down to the river, and when I got there I stripped off my scratchy, sweat dampened woollen tunic and plunged into the cold water. I could swim a little and I went out into the deeper middle, holding my breath and sinking down into the green tinged water. I saw a flash of silver, a fish, and thought that Alec and I should really go out this evening and check the lines we set further upstream. Maybe we could stop by the Goddess tree on the way, and leave an offering for a safe birth for Mother. By the time I left the water I felt much better in both body and mind.

There were no fish on the lines when Alec and I went to check in the early evening, but one of our snares had caught a rabbit. I broke its neck to end its suffering, and then carried the limp body home for skinning and gutting. Bran gobbled up the innards that we couldn’t use, and Mother cooked the rest of it into a stew, adding some apples and berries. It was delicious, and both Alec and I had a second helping, although Mother only picked at hers a little. The sun had dropped below the horizon by then, but the night time brought little relief from the heat and it was with some reluctance that we all went into the hut and lay down for the night.

I don’t know if it was the fleas or Mother that woke me. But I came back to consciousness in the darkness of the hut, my hands scratching feverishly at the bites on my neck and hearing Mother moving around in the straw.

“Mother?” I whispered.

“Hush little one.” There was a slight lightening of the darkness as the curtain was pulled back from the opening, and then I saw Mother’s bulky silhouette move across. “I’m just going outside.”

“Are you okay?” I asked. “Is it…”

“Just the heat.” Mother was trying to sound cheerful, but it wasn’t hard to detect the note of anxiety in her voice. “Go back to sleep Janey. It’s nothing.”

But it wasn’t nothing.

I slept a little more, and when I woke in the morning with the sun already blazing down and the heat making the air shimmer, Mother was gone. I woke Alec and the two of us called for her and then followed Bran as he hopped through the forest to the Goddess tree. It was there we found Mother.

Mother was on her knees in supplication before the sacred tree. The bits of glass and shiny stones that we had decorated it with were glinting in the sun, familiar and comforting, especially in the face of what else was glinting in the sun…the blood, pooling between Mother’s knees and shining red before it soaked into the earth beneath her as she screamed.

“Mother!” Alec dropped to his knees beside her. “What are you doing here? We have to take you home.”

“I came to pray,” Mother gasped. “I knew it was beginning, but…ooohhhh.” Her face contorted and she gripped Alec’s hand so tightly I saw his fingertips turns purple.

“We have to do something.” Alec turned to me. “Jane, we have to do something!”

“Do what?” I asked flatly, watching in horrified fascination as a rush of blood splashed again. “Mother didn’t prepare me for so much blood…I don’t know anything about _this_!”

“Mother, Mother, what can we do?” Alec asked her gently, stroking her arm. “Please, tell us how we can help you.”

“Can’t…the baby…” Mother screamed again, a guttural sound from deep inside. “Too much blood…”

“We’ll get the baby out,” Alec said, sounding surprisingly calm and comforting. “You can do it Mother. Once the baby is born it will all be well. Jane, help me.”

Mother wanted to sit up, and between us Alec and I managed to turn her around so that she was propped up against the sacred tree, her tunic bunched up over her swollen belly. She smiled vaguely at us, her eyes glassy and unfocussed, and then curled forward over her belly as she screamed again. All I could see when she did was the gush of blood, pouring out between her legs in ribbons of ruby red that flowed across the earth as it soaked in. Her legs looked as though they were clad red stockings and when I glanced between them I looked hastily away.

Mother slipped from consciousness then, her head lolling against the rough bark of the tree. The Goddess tree…why hadn’t she come? The Goddess was supposed to be there for mothers, why was she letting my Mother shed her life blood right into the roots of her worship tree?

“I’ll go back and get water,” Alec said. “We need water, and something for the…something for the baby, when it comes.”

I nodded, but I knew even then that any effort would come to nothing. The blood kept coming and Mother’s stark white face and colourless lips told her story, and even if the babe could be birthed the chances of survival were slim. Without Mother there would be no milk, and we didn’t even have the goat any more. A wetnurse maybe, but only if they’d take in a strange baby from the kindness of their hearts because Alec and I had nothing to give in exchange.

It didn’t matter anyway. Slipping in out and out of consciousness, her body seeming to take over when her will failed, Mother birthed the baby. A boy. Red with the blood covering every inch of him, limp and lifeless, he never drew breath despite my best efforts to rouse him.

“Is the baby…?” Alec came hurrying back, the water jug in one hand and a blanket and the rabbit skin wrap in his other.

“It’s dead,” I said brusquely. “Help Mother.”

I pushed the tiny body away from me, and knelt beside Mother, combing her hair back from her face with my fingers as Alec gently poured water over her. The water felt cool and refreshing on my hands, but Mother didn’t stir.

“Can we not stop the bleeding?” Alec asked anxiously.

The afterbirth lay between Mother’s legs, still attached to the baby by the thick, twisted cord, and I looked at it, remembering some of what Mother had told me. “It can help stop the bleeding,” I said to Alec doubtfully. “If you eat some…I don’t know if she can.”

“We must try.” Alec tugged the knife from Mother’s belt and sawed desperately at the purplish red meat, finally cutting off a small piece. “Mother, please…just try.”

I didn’t have his optimism. Mother’s mouth was slack and even if Alec could put the disgusting thing in it she wouldn’t be able to chew and swallow it. The blood was slower now, a trickle rather than a flood, but Mother seemed to be near as lifeless as the baby.

“Mother…please Mother…” Alec looked up at me helplessly. “She’s not answering.”

“I don’t think she’s going to,” I said quietly, and I knelt by his side. “I don’t think she can.”

Silently, Alec and I gripped hands. Mother slumped against the tree, the movements of her chest as her breath rose and fell becoming shallower and further apart, until they stopped altogether. She was dead.

“What do we do?” Alec said eventually, his voice flat.

“Bury her.” In the numbness of shock, I sounded as flat and cold as Alec. “By the river I suppose…it’s the only place where the ground might be soft enough to dig deep.”

“I’ll go and get the shovel,” Alec said. “If you take the…the baby, I’ll meet you by the river. We’ll come back for Mother, it will take both of us to get her down there.”

I nodded silently and Alec squeezed my shoulder before he turned and ran, disappearing into the trees. I gently tugged mother’s tunic down to cover her decently and then turned to the baby.

I didn’t want to touch it. The body was covered in blood, so small and pathetic that even though I could have hated it for killing my mother I felt pity stirring in me instead. Grimacing a little I hacked at the thick cord until it separated, and then picked up the baby and carried him towards the river. He was so light I could barely feel him in my arms.

I reached the river before Alec. The baby felt sticky against my arm, and I thought that perhaps I ought to wash him before we buried him, so picking my way through the stones near the bank I laid the baby gently on a large rock, careful even in death not to be too rough.

If I’d been a few minutes earlier or later, it might have been different. But I was there when I was there, and the lifeless, blood stained body of the baby was laid out on the rock in front of me like a sacrifice, and Alec had come with the shovel. So that’s what he saw.

One of the lord’s men, riding a sweat soaked pony through the forest, came through the trees and saw us. His face blanched, and a look of terror twisted his mouth as he crossed himself in the gesture of the Christians. He didn’t let us explain. He didn’t let us tell him that the baby was our brother, and he had been born dead, and that our mother had died too. He didn’t hear a word as he dug his heels into the pony’s sides and fled, away from the horror of what he _thought_ he saw.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N – I really do like to write birth scenes, but I didn’t like this one so much! I like my characters having positive, healthy birth experiences, and this one was anything but. Sadly normal for the time and place though- prior to the advent of trained midwives and doctors and emergency medical care, birth could be a pretty perilous business.   
> As a point of interest, there is some evidence to suggest that eating a piece of placenta directly after birth actually can help with postpartum haemorrhage. While I personally availed myself of drugs and a surgeon to deal with it when it happened to me, they really didn’t have that many options back in 8th century England so Jane’s suggestion here wasn’t that far-fetched.


	6. Burial

Alec and I worked through the heat of the day to dig the grave. While he dug I washed the baby and wrapped him in the rabbit skin wrap Mother had made. The two of us carried Mother’s body down to the river and while I dug Alec washed the blood away from her skin, leaving her pale and waxen with her eyes forever closed. Both of us worked together in silence, sweat stinging our eyes as the sun beat down mercilessly, the heat even reaching into the usually cool and shadowed places of the forest.

It was evening by the time Alec threw the shovel up from the bottom of the hole and then hauled himself up after it. “That’s got to be enough,” he panted. “I can’t do any more.”

I offered him the jug of water and he gulped it down, letting some wash down over his chin and fall onto his tunic. “Thank you.”

“I think it looks deep enough,” I said, peering into the hole. The bottom of it was wet with mud.

“Like I said, it _has_ to be enough,” Alec muttered. He swiped a hand across his face, leaving a broad smear of mud. “We should probably do this.”

“Yes,” I said quietly. “We should do this.”

Mother’s body lay in the shade of a tree, the baby at her side. He was wrapped in the rabbit skins and, tucked against Mother’s side, he looked as though he was simply sleeping if I ignored the odd colour of his lips. Mother, with all the animation gone from her face looked…more _dead_ than he did. Frightening.

Alec knelt by her side. “I can’t believe she’s dead,” he said softly.

“She should never have let whoever it was put that baby in her belly,” I said sharply.

“Janey.” Alec spoke quietly. “It’s too late for that.”

Suddenly tears were stinging my eyes, worse than the sweat from earlier in the day. I dashed them away impatiently, and grabbed Mother’s foot, forcing myself to grip tightly even as the feel of her dead flesh revolted me. Alec must have seen my tears, but he said nothing then, taking Mother’s upper half and leading the way as the two of us struggled to carry our burden the few feet to the grave. Alec took the baby and laid him gently in Mother’s arms.

“So at least they’re together,” he whispered to me, as his strong hand found mine and curled around it. “They’ll be together in the afterlife, and we’ll be together here.”

I rested my head against his shoulder. “I’m sorry I was mean and said those things about Mother.”

“It doesn’t matter now.” Alec kissed my forehead, and then we set to work filing in the grave with the dirt we’d dug out so laboriously as we gave our Mother into the ground.

“There’s going to be a storm,” Alec said a little uneasily as he patted the last shovelful of earth onto the grave. “Can’t you feel it?”

I’d been too busy digging and shifting dirt to pay attention to the weather, and I had a sarcastic retort on the tip of my tongue to give my brother before I raised my head and bit it back. Because Alec was right. The oppressive heat lay like a blanket across the world and the evening sky showed no clouds, but the sense of an impending break in the weather was so strong it made the hairs on my arms stand up.

“You’re right. We should get back and make sure our things are secure under cover. Let’s just wash this mud off.”

I left my shift and tunic on the bank and dove immediately into the deeper water, which was deliciously cool and refreshing after the labours of the day. I dove deep, the water washing the stinging salt of tears from my eyes and swallowing the sound of my sobs. Only when my chest was burning with lack of air did I come up, breaking the surface with a gasp.

Alec was beside me, floating on his back and staring up at the sky. I noticed afresh that his body was changing, beginning to form the lines and shapes that would mark him as a man just as my body was changing towards that of a woman. We had always been so alike and so much a part of each other, not needing anyone else, that the idea of growing up and growing apart was almost unthinkable. Unsettled, I gave Alec a shove and sent him spluttering under the water.

“We might be in trouble,” I said as he surfaced, forestalling his thoughts of revenge. “You know one of the lord’s men saw me with the baby, and…well, I saw his face. I think he thought I was doing some mischief.”

Alec frowned, and then shrugged. “What can we do? The baby was born dead, and that’s a common enough story. Better to wash it off and bury it than leave if for the wolves! Come on Janey, let’s go home.”

The forest was almost unnaturally still and silent as we stepped quietly through it. The same sense that warned us of the impending storm was even stronger in the birds and small animals, and they had taken to their hiding places. In our clearing Bran was crouched under the lean-to where we kept the firewood, and he whined piteously as he crawled on his belly over to me.

“You big baby,” I scolded him gently, stroking him gently on his read and then scratching his belly as rolled over. “As if a bit of rain could hurt you! Never mind, when the storm hits you’ll be safe inside with me and Alec.”

But the storm that hit us next wasn’t the kind with rain, and there was no safety for any of us there when it broke over our heads.

We heard the sound of footsteps tramping through the forest, and Alec I met each other’s eyes with quizzical faces. Certainly we heard people in the forest quite often, out hunting or gathering food or wood, and there were many people who would walk the distance to our hut to consult with Mother and her herbs. But the footsteps we could hear were not those of a single person, or even two…

There were ten of them, when they emerged from the trees. Ten men, three of them mounted on ponies and the other seven on foot, but all of them wielding weapons and with faces dark with menace.

Instinctively Alec and I moved to stand together. I had my hand on Bran’s head and could feel the rumbling of a grown low in his throat. His fur bristled.

“Where’s your mother?” one of the men called roughly.

“She died,” I said defensively. “Only this morning, in childbirth.”

“And the babe?”

“Born dead.”

“I know what I saw!” One of the men snarled, and I recognised him as the lord’s man I had seen earlier. “The babe all covered in blood and laid out as sacrifice on the river stones! The mother nowhere near, and that witch standing over it with her spells and mischief!”

“But that’s ridiculous!” I was too angry now to be frightened. “The baby was already dead, I _told_ you that! I was washing it for burial!” Below my hand, Bran growled.

“Of course you’d say that! Both of you…trying to conceal your wickedness and ill-wishing! But we know what you are and what you’ve been doing!”

Alec was speechless, but I was enraged by their accusations. “You don’t know a thing!”

“Aye, we know enough.” One of the mounted men looked down at me, his face set in a fierce frown even though his eyes were fearful. Below him the pony shifted uneasily. “We don’t know why you did it, to be sure…a sacrifice to your pagan gods or some other spell, but we know that you killed the babe. We’re taking you and your brother for the babe’s death and all the wrong you’ve done to us in the village, and tomorrow you’ll face the Lord’s justice.”

“No!” As one Alec and I turned to run, but with a roar the men were on us. I was kicked and shoved until I fell, and then I could see nothing as my face was pressed into the hard dirt, hands on my head and back holding me down as someone tied a coarse rope around my wrists.

I could still hear though. I heard the soft grunt as someone caught Alec with a fist and then another thud of fist on flesh and a scream. I heard Bran snarl and bark furiously, and then the barking cut away with a pained whine that faded to nothing.

“No, don’t!” Spitting dirt I tried to rise, only being able to move enough to turn my face to the side. I half wished I’d kept looking away, because I found myself looking into the dead, lifeless eyes of my Bran, his throat cut and the blood spreading in a wide pool around him.

_The blood…it’s just like Mother. The baby too…that was only this morning! How many more are going to die today?_

I could see Alec too, held on the ground like me. His face was a fearful mess of smeared blood and tears, the blood still bubbling out of his nose as he struggled to breathe, his blue eyes swimming.

As soon as the weight of the men on my back was gone I was struggling again, fighting to free myself. They’d tied my hands but I could still kick, and I landed several blows with my feet. When one of them made the mistake of coming too close I slammed my forehead into his nose, hearing the satisfying crack and the man’s shriek as I broke his nose.

It was a short-lived victory though.  Before I could do more one of the mounted men brought the heavy handle of his axe down on to my head and I fell down into the darkness.


	7. Justice

It was still dark when I woke. I thought for a moment I must be blind, but as I blinked frantically I began to see a very faint light above me. Starlight…it was night.

I moaned, and almost immediately I felt gentle hands touching my face and heard a muttered prayer of thanks.

“Janey, you’re awake! I’ve been so worried, I thought you might never wake…”

I groaned again as I felt the pulsing pain in my head. I gingerly reached up a hand and touched the place that hurt most, wincing at the pain and the wetness that was probably blood in my hair. “Where are we?” All I could see was the night sky above us, and feel dirt below us.

“The thieves hole,” Alec said. I could feel him shudder. “After they hit you they threw you across the saddle and made me walk and they brought us here. They said the lord will be back tomorrow and he’ll decide what’s to be done with us.”

“They really think we killed the baby?” I felt disoriented in the dark, and I struggled to pull myself up to a sitting position. My wrists burned, and as I rubbed them I could feel the rough skin, chafed raw by the ropes. “Babies die all the time.”

“It’s not just the baby,” Alec said quietly. “It’s all those stories they tell about us. They believe them. They think that we can cast spells and wish ill on people, and that by worshipping the old gods we’re using dark magic. We’re in real trouble Janey.”

“This is so _stupid_!” I hissed. “Babies are always being born dead! _Everyone_ used to worship the old gods! And do they really think if I could work spells and had dark magic I’d allow us to be caught and thrown into a stinking thieves hole by idiots like _them_?”

“Well, that doesn’t really matter, does it? Because we’re down in the thieves hole and there’s a group of people up there who believe we’re wicked and want us dead.”

“Can we get out?” I ask. “It’s too deep for a man to get out, but there are two of us and they haven’t put on the bars.” The heavy logs that usually covered the thieves’ hole would have been impossible for either Alec or I to move.

“We can try.”

We tried standing on each other’s shoulders, and pushing each other up with hands in the hopes that one of us could jump high enough to grab hold of the edge and haul themselves up, but nothing worked. By the time we were forced to give up my head was aching worse than ever.

“It’s getting colder isn’t it?”

I put my arm around Alec as he sat next to me and laid my head on his shoulder. “The storm’s nearly here…it will be nice to have a break from this awful heat.” Looking up I realised I could no longer see any stars for the clouds that covered them, and far in the distance thunder rumbled.

“I wish Mother were here.” Alec’s voice was so quiet I could barely hear him.

“I wish I really was what they think I am, and could get us out of here and smite them all,” I said darkly.

Alec chuckled weakly, but I hadn’t been joking. My heart was full of a dark, furious hate for the people who had brought us here and if I could have punished them all for it I would have.

The storm blew in with a roar of wind that made all the trees shake and a rumble of thunder that seemed to make the very earth at my back tremble. Alec and I could do nothing but cling to each other as we cowered in the dark hole that rapidly turned into a mud pit. Down there were sheltered from the wind, but nothing could save us from the pitiless onslaught of rain that poured down from the sky. Great sheets of lightning lit up the sky, brighter than daylight, and the thunder crashed and the earth shook like it was the last days.

Alec and I huddled together, heads bent close as we shrank beneath the wrath of the heavens. The floods of rain pooled beneath us and I shivered uncontrollably as the wet and cold seeped inexorably into my skin. There was no real sense of time passing as we endured the maelstrom from our dark hole, but eventually the rolls of thunder sounded further away, the lightning stopped flashing, and at last even the rain stopped as the faint light of dawn began brightening the sky.

Alec’s teeth were chattering. “Maybe they’ll let us out soon.”

“Do we want them to? What kind of justice are we facing?” I wasn’t sure if my shivering was from cold or fear.

“We didn’t do what they say,” Alec said, and I envied him his simple faith. “I know the stories about us, and I know that some of them seem to be true…but they can’t be! Nobody can do those things that they are accusing us of. We’ve done nothing and they’ll see that and let us go back home.”

I said nothing, but I didn’t share his optimism. They had killed Bran, they had sent ten men with axes and knives and bows to bring just two of us to meet their justice…they were afraid of us, and fear breeds hate and hate could lead to terrible things.

As the day wore on though, no one came. Despite the cold and damp leaching into my bones I was thankful for the puddled water in the bottom of the thieves’ hole when my thirst became too great that I couldn’t resist scooping it up and into my mouth. My stomach growled too. There had been no time for food the previous day and I was starving.

We heard the villagers as the day wore on, though we could not see them. There was shouting and angry voices, and then a great wailing that made my flesh crawl with dread. There was hammering and crashing and the regular sound of axes biting into wood. At one point we heard the higher voices of children, and then a shower of manure and rotting vegetables and other unpleasantness was thrown down upon us.

I swore furiously as I tried to clean the muck from my hair, but Alec simply pushed himself a little deeper into the corner and did nothing.

“How can you just sit there?” I demanded, swiping a chunk of something disgusting out of his hair with unnecessary force. “Doesn’t it make you angry?”

“There’s nothing I can do,” Alec said softly. “What good is it to rage now?” He put his hands over his head so I could no longer yank on his hair. “I’d rather just think about home and Mother and Bran, and think about when we’ll be back there.”

“Well Mother and Bran are dead,” I snapped brutally. “And we’re in a thieves’ hole and for all we know they’re going to let us die here!”

Alec sighed heavily. “I know that. But what good does it do right now to get angry and shout and stamp and kick the walls?”

“It stops me from being afraid,” I said sullenly. “When I’m angry I’m not scared…and I don’t want to be scared.”

“Then come and sit with me,” Alec said gently, and without another word I went and sat beside him, shoulder to shoulder, just as we’d always been.

We talked little as the afternoon wore away. The sun came out after the storm and the mix of mud and refuse in the bottom of the hole smelled cloyingly of rot. I think both of us dozed a little, slumped upright against each other in the corner, waking up to more of the same uncomfortable reality. When we couldn’t hold it any longer both of us had to urinate where we were, adding to the foulness of our prison. I almost wished they would come and fetch us for their version of justice, and then I remembered that sometimes people were kept in the thieves’ hole for weeks and I shuddered. Not that.

But it was early evening when we heard them coming for us. Alec and I scrambled to our feet so that we were standing upright and composed when the first faces peered over the edge at us. I knew there was no use fighting so when they lowered the rope ladder I scrambled up it, Alec following.

I was afraid then, when I first saw what I’d been raised up to meet. This wasn’t the group of men from last night. It looked to be everyone from the village and this mob of people weren’t only there to witness…they were there with rage in their eyes and revenge in their hearts as we were dragged to the square.

“ _Evil, unnatural…witch…witch…witch…”_ The words came from all around.

_“Set their spells and their mischief.”_

_“Nothing but mischance and ill luck from those two.”_

_“Killed a baby they did…it’s dark magic that needs the sacrifice of an innocent.”_

_“Conjured the storm last night, because they’d been caught…wreaked havoc on the village and razed the crops to the ground…curses and spells.”_

_“Worship the old gods…worshipping the devil more like!”_

This was so much worse than I had thought! I glanced across at Alec, wishing I could reach across and touch him, but we were separated by so many as the hard, cruel hands pushed and dragged and jostled us along. Then we reached the square and my legs turned to water because what I saw there was unmistakeable.

The pyre.

I screamed. I tried to fight my way free, but there were too many of them, too many strong people with pinching, squeezing fingers digging into my flesh and pulling my hair. Too many people for me to have any chance of getting away as Alec and I were both dragged to the stake and bound to it, back to back. The stake was rough and splintery at my back and the ropes were rough and bit deep into my flesh, but I could think of nothing but the flames as they piled the wood closer.

“Alec! Alec!” I gasped, trying desperately to twist my head to see him. The rope around my neck was too tight though, and when all I managed to do was choke myself I had to turn back.

“Don’t be afraid Janey.” Alec’s voice was thin, and seemed to come from impossibly far away. “It will be over soon. Just think of home, think of Bran, pray to Tiw*…just go far away inside yourself, and it will all be over quickly.”

I could say nothing. Nothing to Alec and nothing to the mob of people who didn’t care to hear me, not when they were so sure of our guilt. I simply stood there, bound and helpless, as they stacked the pyre higher.

It was the Lord of the manor house who made the pronouncement. “For the crime of infanticide you have been found guilty. For the sins of using witchcraft, for using dark magic and spell work and bringing mischance and conjuring storms upon those of us here you have been sentenced to die!”

“No!” I knew it was useless, but I could no more go quietly than I could have set the fire myself. “We didn’t do anything! You’re _wrong_! You stupid fools, you’re _wrong!”_

They laid the burning torches to the branches, and immediately a wisp of smoke curled up, floating skyward, before it was scattered by the soft breeze. A moment later there was flame, a small lick of orange catching on a twig and then beginning to blaze higher. Fire.

I wasn’t struggling anymore. But I could move my fingers, just a little, and I stretched and strained until they touched the very tips of Alec’s fingers.

We would die as we were born. Together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Saxon pagan god of justice and the sky. The equivalent of Thor in Norse mythology.


	8. Death and Rebirth

The smoke was bad enough. The damp wood was slow to catch, but even as the flames sputtered and flickered and threaded along the branches as it gained strength, the smoke billowed upwards in great clouds. It stung my eyes until I was blinded by my own tears, and burned my lungs so that every coughing, choking breath was agony.

At my back Alec was silent, but even though there was almost no sound from my ravaged throat I screamed. I screamed at the villagers I could not see, only hear through the thick clouds of smoke, wishing that I had the powers of witchcraft and magic that they were burning me for.

_If only I had, then I could make them all hurt, make them all suffer this torment, and then they’d be sorry…_

The flames rose higher, the tallest of them beginning to lick at my toes, and then it felt as though I were engulfed in the heat and the flames and sheer, overwhelming pain and I could think no more. I could smell the scent of my burning flesh as the fire gained strength, and the intensity of the agony meant that the light touch of Alec’s fingertips against mine seemed to disappear.

I wanted to die, then. I wanted it to be over.

I didn’t know what happening outside my own personal hell. I couldn’t see through my smoke-blind eyes and probably wouldn’t have understood even if I had seen, but even as lost as I was I felt when things began to change.

The noise from the villagers changed from a victorious chorus of gleeful vengeance to screams of terror. But then even the screams were cut off, one by one, until there was nothing but an eerie silence outside the crackle of the flames. Someone threw something over the fire, smothering it briefly, and for a moment there was a cool breeze blowing the smoke away and giving me some sweet, fresh air. I felt strong, cold hands breaking my bonds. Once the ropes were gone I fell, only to be caught up in arms that felt like stone but were curiously gentle at the same time.

There was movement after that, although I couldn’t have said where we were going or how long it took to get there. The pain of my charred and burnt flesh was excruciating, and I had little attention to spare for anything but trying to breathe through my ruined lungs.

I was laid down somewhere and, although I wanted to open my eyes and blink away the tears and find my brother, all I could do was lie helplessly where I had been put. I couldn’t bring myself to move, and as the pain began to fade I thought that I was dying, and that rescue had come too late. I wished I could see Alec…we’d always done everything together. How could I die if he wasn’t there with me?

“If they die Philippe, these children will not be the only ones to burn today! You can mark my words, that will become _your_ funeral pyre if you’ve lost the most promising hopes that the Volturi has had for _decades_! The sheer _incompetence_ of what you have done here!”

I didn’t know who it was speaking over me, but they were angry, their voice practically spitting with rage. I thought about opening my eyes to see who they were, but my body was unresponsive.

“I know my Lord, I’m sorry. But I swear to you, they had no intention of burning the children yesterday! They would have hung them for the babe’s death and I would have been able to fetch you in plenty of time if they’d kept to that plan. But the storm, and the destruction of so much of the village…they blamed the children for witchcraft and started the burning while I was still travelling here with you!”

“You’re lucky I’m a patient and forgiving man, Philippe! Now…can they be moved to Volterra as they are? Judging by the smell they’ve been roasted like pigs on a spit, but surely they’ll live?”

“I’m not…I don’t know my Lord.” The deep voice was hesitant. “The burns are very bad, well up to the hips on the girl, and the smoke damage…the boy can hardly breathe and his heart…”

 _Alec._ Oh Mother Goddess, please take care of him!

I forced my smoke blind eyes open to look for my brother, and through the streaming tears and cloudiness I managed to focus on the face peering down at me. It wasn’t Alec though. Little more than a blurred white oval topped with dark hair, the red eyes shone like beacons…and I remembered.

_A long ago Eostre day, flowers in my hair and offerings on the altar, and two men of such strangeness, with their red eyes that seemed to see too much and make me so frightened…Lord Aro._

“Then it must be done here,” Lord Aro said flatly. “Now. I will not lose them.”

“But…my Lord!” Philippe again, sounding horrified. “We can’t possibly do that! They’re…look at them! They’re….children…”

“ _Don’t you ever say that again!”_ Aro hissed, and even as my body burned my heart felt the ice of his tone. “ _They are what I say they are, and I say that they are mine. Mine!_ ”

His face seemed to swim closer to mine, his red eyes drawing me in with their hypnotic power as he flashed his white teeth in a terrifying grin. “A little more fire for you, sweetling…but it shall make you mine…”

Closer, closer…teeth so white and terrible, ruby eyes so compelling… _oh, Mother Goddess what he is doing to me?_

I hadn’t dreamed that the pain could get worse, but it did. I thought I had been thrown back on the pyre and I screamed and kicked and tried to claw my way free, but there was no escape. Not from the flames that consumed my skin and the liquid fire that flowed in my veins until I felt turned inside out with the sheer, raw agony of it.

There was no sense of time or place. I merely existed, in a place of such blazing heat and pain that there was little room for anything but the never-ending thoughts of the agony I was suffering. But I heard my brother scream once, and the thought of him anchored me a little in that place, and I began to listen for him.

_Are you here too Alec? Can you find me? I want you._

Sometimes I heard him. Sometimes he screamed with a throat so hoarse it seemed to make barely any sound at all. Sometimes he cried. Once I heard him say my name.

Sometimes I heard _them._ Philippe and Aro. I hated them for this, for rescuing me from the fire only to throw me back into one a thousand times worse. I hated them for simply sitting there, watching me burn, instead of doing _something_ to save me.

“There’s a reason I rarely do this myself.” Aro sounded peevish. “Can’t you do something about that girl’s dreadful caterwauling, Philippe? Tie her mouth or something?”

I felt hands on me, wrapping something around my face. Before they could tighten it I turned my head and bit down savagely. Fingers were pulled out of my mouth and I heard Philippe curse, even as Lord Aro laughed in delight.

“Little wildcat,” he said, almost fondly. “I really _cannot_ wait to see what they will become! If only it didn’t require three days spent in this disgusting hovel of a village manor house listening to the two of them howl!”

“You can return to Volterra my Lord,” Philippe said wearily. “I can see them through the transformation and bring them to you afterwards. You needn’t stay.”

“Leave them to you? After you nearly had them burned at the stake? I hardly think so!” Aro sniffed. “I shall see this through myself.”

I drifted away again, lost in darkness that was full of pain and where nightmare dreams of demons and deities haunted me relentlessly. I screamed and fought and howled with my desperation for release, but for a long time it seemed as though relief would never come.

It was an infinitesimal change at first, just the tiniest cooling of the heat on my toes and fingertips. The flames began to fade – so slowly!- and then the burning lessened to only heat and the coolness invaded my body and the relief was so sweet I could have wept.

For whatever that torture had been, I had survived.

I opened my eyes, springing to my feet and instinctively crouching defensively, a stone wall at my back. My eyes swept the room, searching for anything that I recognised.

  1. My brother lay several feet away, his eyes closed and his face cold and unmoving. _He’s dead._



I sprang across to him, dropping immediately to my knees with a grace that I didn’t think to question despite the strangeness of it. “Alec…Alec…”

The sounds were all wrong. My own voice sounded nothing like it should, and kneeling by my brother I realised that the thudding beat I had taken for my own heart was that of my brother. I could hear it so clearly, and yet my own heartbeat…

“He’s not dead. He’ll wake up in a moment.”

I whipped my head around. Seated at the far end of the grand table were the two men I remembered from my childhood. Philippe…and Lord Aro. But like the sounds everything was different, and I blinked as I gazed at them as if for the first time. I was stunned by the clarity of what I could see. The perfectly smooth skin and each of Aro’s silky strands of hair as they lay in impeccable order. Philippe’s fair hair, braided back from his face and tangled down his neck, made up of a thousand different shades of gold and white and platinum and yellow. The fabric of their tunics and hose, so fine I had never seen their like, but still I could somehow count the weft and warp threads of the cloth. The grain of the ancient, heavy oak table they sat at, the tiny faults and cracks in the earthenware mugs and plates scattered across the table…I seemed able to take all of it in in an instant.

And the smells! The smell of smoke still hung heavy over everything, but below that was the odour of animals and rot and death. Hay and earth and growing green things and the sun scorching the dirt outside. The smell of water, of honey and wool and timber. All of it assaulting my suddenly sharpened senses to an extent that was both bewildering and exhilarating.

But I couldn’t take the time to think about it, not when I thought my brother might be dying. Backing away so that I could tend to Alec and still watch the men, I touched my brother’s chest gently.

“He’s not dying,” Philippe said to me, his smile surprisingly gentle in his fearsome warrior’s face. “Not so you’ll notice…he’s _changing.”_

“What do you mean?” I demanded. I could feel his heart pounding fast, too fast.

Lord Aro stood up and smiled at me. “Why, he’s being reborn. He’s becoming what you already are.”

 _Becoming what I already am?_ For the first time since opening my eyes I looked down at myself, and for a moment I froze.

I knew I had been burned. I had seen the flames of the pyre licking at my legs, I had felt the agony as skin blistered and charred, and I had smelled the gruesome scent of my own flesh as it cooked. There had been the endless pain as Aro and Philippe watched me suffer. What was left of my tunic and shift were black and scorched as I looked down, and yet after all that…my skin bore not a mark. Not a mark of fire, not a mark of _anything_ , I realised with a lurch of unease as I pushed back the ragged sleeves of my shift.

It was the end of summer. My arms and legs _should_ have been brown with dirt and sun. They should have borne a thousand different scars and marks and scratches, evidence of a life spent in forest and river, but instead there was nothing. Only smooth, hard white skin, with no marks or imperfections, and a body that felt suddenly alive with strength and energy and power.

“What?” I whispered. “What is it that you’ve made of me?”

Lord Aro’s smile glittered in the half-light of the lord’s hall. “A vampire sweetling…I’ve made you a vampire.”


	9. How It's Done

“Vampire,” I said slowly, feeling the shape the word made in my mouth. “Vampire…I don’t know what that is.”

Aro clasped his hands together and sighed theatrically. “Ahh Philippe, to be corrupting such innocence!”

I was no longer paying attention to him though. Beneath my hand Alec’s heart thudded one last time and then stopped, the sudden absence of the pounding beat seeming almost louder than the noise of it.

“Alec. Oh Alec, please wake up…” I touched his cheeks frantically, noting with half my mind that he too appeared to have the same smooth and flawless skin as my own beneath the soot and the dirt. “Alec, I need your help!”

In fear and irritation I slapped his cheek lightly. His head rocketed backwards and slammed into the floor with a crash, as though I’d used my full strength and more, and then Alec’s eyes flew opened and his lips drew back in a snarl and I screamed.

That wasn’t my brother! Not that creature with the flaming red eyes that flipped up into a crouch and advanced upon with his mouth twisted so fearsomely! It couldn’t be! But the familiar fair hair was there, the same blackened and burned and ragged tunic, and it was my own face I saw in the mask of the monster.

“Alec!” I shouted at him. “You stop it now!”

Luckily for me he was used to doing as I ordered him. As my shouted words rang through the large room he stopped and shook his head, seeming to come back to himself as he blinked in confusion.

“Janey?” he asked uncertainly. “What’s happened? What’s…” He caught sight of Lord Aro and Philippe and moved to my side almost faster than breath. “I remember you from when we were children. What are you doing here?”

“Rescuing you from the pyre of course.” Lord Aro shook his head. “The carelessness of the two of you being accused of witchcraft and letting them take you to the stake! But then, no matter…we’re all here now, and you’ve gone through the change so all’s well that ends well!”

“What are you _talking_ about?” I demanded rudely. I’d had enough of his riddles and half-truths, and the fire had left my throat raw and burning with thirst. I needed something to drink.

Philippe rose to his feet and Alec and I skittered warily backwards. But he grinned at us kindly, and gave me a wink. “Don’t worry friends, I know you’re thirsty and I have just the thing. I’ll be back.”

Once he was gone, Alec and I stood shoulder to shoulder, facing Lord Aro suspiciously.

“Explain,” I snarled.

Lord Aro frowned reprovingly. “Well, I shall _certainly_ add your manners to the list of things we need to work on with you! But I will forgive you for now. You say you don’t know anything of the vampire?”

I shook my head, and Aro clicked his tongue in exasperation. “The ignorance! But what else could be expected, living in the mud with the pigs? A vampire is a creature of legend, an immortal being of extraordinary strength and perfection who exists on the lifeblood of humans.”

Alec and I could do nothing but stare at him. It was a tale so preposterous that there really was no response to it, and for a moment my mind was blank with astonishment.

It was a scent that roused me to action. The sweetest scent in the world, drifting in through the open door and making my mouth run as my whole body tingled with an electrifying sense of anticipation.

From the table Lord Aro laughed. “Oh, you can smell it now, can’t you?”

I didn’t answer him. Didn’t even look at him as I was drawn magnetically towards the door, where Philippe was entering with a bundle in each arm. He threw them both onto the table with a thump.

As one, Alec and I turned and lunged at the table, the scent maddeningly me with my desire to feast upon it. Alec growled, and I knew he was feeling the same.

But before we could move we were both held fast, as Philippe and Lord Aro seized our arms and bent them up high behind our back. I snarled and twisted, trying to get away or kick or bite the arms and hands that bound me, but Philippe only pushed me a little further away from his body and laughed.

“I’ve learned my lesson little wildcat- you’re not getting your teeth into me again! Settle down and we’ll give you something else to bite, something _much_ better.”

I whined, nearly whimpering with desperation. The two bundles on the table wriggled, making muffled sounds I couldn’t decipher even with my newly sharpened ears, and my throat burned as the scent of them intensified.

“Your first meal, to welcome you to your new world…” Lord Aro said softly.

A part of my mind registered that the bundles on the table were human beings, bound and gagged and staring at me with terrified eyes. But this part of me was subsumed by the all-encompassing thirst. Nothing mattered more than satisfying it, and the instant Philippe released my arms I was on the table, scrabbling at the cloth that was so infuriatingly in the way, revealing finally the thin skin of the neck and sinking my teeth into it. Razor sharp teeth, that tore through skin and sinew without effort, rewarding me with a rush of blood.

I couldn’t think. The blood was so _good_ , flooding my senses with the glorious taste of it; hot and rich and delicious as it flowed down my throat and soothed the burn. It was more than the taste though. The pleasure of the feeding could be felt in every last nerve of my body as the blood slaked my thirst and filled me with strength and fire and _life_. I gulped greedily, digging my teeth in further to increase the rate that it pooled in my mouth, thinking that I would never, ever have enough of this extraordinary bliss.

It couldn’t last. The heart of the human I crouched over was strong, but in the face of my thirst it didn’t stand a chance. It struggled to beat as the blood drained steadily out, but in the end it stuttered and gave out, the blood slowing to a trickle and then stopping.

It was only once it was done and I sat back, my whole body quivering with newly infused energy, that I looked down at the face of the man I had just killed. He had been gagged so he couldn’t scream, but I recognised the thick ginger beard and the jagged scar that ran from his temple down the side of his face. The lord of the manor house I was in, and I had just slaughtered him on his own table.

Alec’s face mirrored mine as the two of us looked up and stared at each other across the two bodies that lay between us. It was the lord’s blood that stained my face, and it was the blood of Agnes, the cook that we’d traded with so often, that was smeared across Alec’s mouth and chin and cheeks.

“It’s real,” Alec said quietly. He gently took the cloth that was tied across Agnes’ mouth, untied the knots and shook it out, laying it over her slack, lifeless face. I followed his example with the lord, and then our eyes caught once again.

“It was so good,” I whispered, as shame curled in my belly. I had just killed someone, savagely ripped his neck open and gloried in the taste and feel of his lifeblood flowing into me, and even feeling the vaguest tickle of thirst in the back of my throat made me acknowledge that I would do it again and again and again. “I know we shouldn’t have, but…I’m not hungry now.”

Alec nodded in understanding. For when had he and I ever not been hungry? When had we ever felt as full and sated as we did then?

Philippe leaned past me and took a body in each hand, tossing them into a corner of the room as though they weighed nothing at all. The sound of their skulls thudding into the walls and floor made me grimace.

“So that’s how it’s done,” he said to Alec and I with a grin. “That’s how you’ll live now, drinking the blood of humans, and I can promise you it’s always going to be as good as it was today. You won’t ever be hungry again.”

I looked at him expressionlessly. _A vampire is a creature of legend, an immortal being of extraordinary strength and perfection who exists on the lifeblood of humans._ Aro’s words from earlier drifted through my mind, and I considered them. Certainly the feeding on human blood was true.

Strength…I curled my hand around one of the earthenware jugs on the table and as I closed my fingers it crumbled to nothing more than dust in my palm.

Alec watched me, and then slowly picked up a metal knife, winding it around his finger as easily as he would a blade of grass. Our eyes met. _Strength…yes. There’s strength._

“Immortal,” I said slowly. “Does that mean…?”

“You cannot die,” Lord Aro answered. “Not through any human means. There’s nothing a human can do that will hurt you…you’re faster and stronger and so much more powerful that any kind of comparison is merely laughable. They’re a food source, nothing more than that.”

“So they can’t do anything to me,” I mused. “All those people who were trying to burn us- I’m stronger and more powerful and I can drink their blood and kill them?”

“Well, most of the people who were trying to burn you are already dead,” said Philippe cheerfully. “Lord Aro and I killed a lot of them to get you off the pyre and then the others ran away. We did hunt a few of those down too. There’s no need for stories to spread if they don’t have to! And of course, you were burning for three days, and a vampire’s got to eat… But your basic point stands. You’ve risen in the world, friends.”

“We’ll find the others then,” I said to Alec, ignoring the troubled look on his face. “They won’t get away.”

I jumped off the table, landing with a silent grace that gave me a sly joy as I realised that this was part of what they meant about being a vampire. I could move so silently and stealthily that no one would ever even hear me coming. Just as silently Alec landed beside me, and I went to push past Lord Aro and Philippe to get to the doorway.

“And where do you think you’re going?” Lord Aro inquired.

I glared at him. “Away from you.”

Aro raised his eyebrows at me. “You would appear to be under the mistaken impression that we saved you from the pyre merely for your personal benefit.”

“What do you mean?” Alec asked, bewildered. “You…there was a purpose? A plan? I don’t understand.”

“Oh, there was purpose.” Aro’s eyes gleamed. “You two were chosen long ago to receive the sacred gift, and to have the honour of becoming one of us. You do not seem to understand the glory of what has just been given to you, but in time you will see it. We take you home, to your new home, where you will live forever more.”

The light of mania in his eyes, the way he smiled so angelically and yet showed me those lethal, razor sharp teeth at the same time terrified me. I didn’t want to go with him. I didn’t want to follow him into the great, unknown future no matter what dazzling promises of glory he spoke of with his serpent’s tongue. The fear rose in me like a flame, and with it came the fury for the one making me feel that terror.

_No! I won’t feel afraid! You should be afraid of ME, because I’ll make you hurt! I’ll make you sorry…_

I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t mean it. All I knew was that everything within me, all the anger and hate and thirst for vengeance suddenly flared and coalesced into a white-hot feeling of power that exploded outward. I felt the energy leave my body and I reeled backwards in confusion, the world whirling.

In front of me, Alec, Philippe and Lord Aro all stumbled to the ground, hands wrapped around their heads as they screamed.


	10. A New Journey

It stopped as suddenly as it had started. Silence, alive with things unsaid, pressed down on me as I three pairs of ruby red eyes stared at me.

“What was that?” Alec shivered as he rose to his feet, shifting his feet in agitation. “I thought you said nothing could hurt us anymore!” He glared at the other two vampires in accusation.

Lord Aro and Philippe ignored him, keeping their eyes fastened on me. I saw a shadow of respect in Philippe’s eyes as his mouth broadened into a smile. “Well, well, well…little wildcat indeed.”

Aro’s smile was blinding. “But it’s marvellous! If we can harness that, control it…imagine the possibilities. You have outdone yourself Philippe.”

I shook my head, confused and afraid, unaccountably tired after that extraordinary outpouring of rage. “I didn’t do anything…Alec, I don’t know what happened.”

He shook his head. “It hurt,” he said simply. “Everything, everywhere…like the burning, only different, worse.”

Astounded I could only gaze at him blankly. How could anything be _worse_ than that? And how could I have caused that?

But then I remembered how the power had felt, the way I had hurled it out of my body with nothing but a burning will to _hurt_ someone, and I began to understand.

Alec came and stood by my side, looking at Aro and Philippe with a calm I certainly didn’t share. “Please,” he said with a sigh. “There is more to this than you have said thus far. Please, just tell us what you want from us.”

“We wish to take you home with us,” Aro said kindly. “It is a wondrous thing you have become, but there are rules and things you must know before you can be permitted to make your own way. Philippe and I are part of the Volturi, the highest vampire coven in the world. We have wealth and power and knowledge beyond your dreams, and we would very much like for you to accompany us back to our home in Volterra. There you will meet many others of our kind, and you will be able to avail yourself of every comfort and luxury as you learn. After that, if you wish, you will be free to leave. Although, who knows? Pehaps Volterra will be to your liking and you will choose to remain with us.”

I didn’t trust him. Not one little bit. But what he was offering had appeal, and the alternative was a bewildering and confusing time as Alec and I tried to make our own way and learn about what we had become.

“We need to talk about it,” I said abruptly, just before Alec could nod his head and agree with their proposal.

There was a quick flash of displeasure across Lord Aro’s face, but he smoothed it away almost instantly, and bowed his head. “Of course. Philippe?”

I had wanted to go outside and talk to Alec away from the two vampires, but they were quicker than me and were out the door before I could move. I shrugged, and moved across to the window.

“Look at that!”

Everything I had intended to say vanished in the face of my astonishment as I saw Lord Aro and Philippe standing in the yard in the late afternoon sunlight. Their skin reflected the light in a thousand different crystals and rainbows…I had never seen anything so beautiful.

Alec drew in his breath sharply, and then leaned through the window opening, holding his bare arm out into the sunlight, and immediately the same luminous beauty was apparent on his skin. “It’s the same…it must be something to do with being a vampire.”

I scowled. “We really _do_ need to learn about what we are now, don’t we? I hadn’t even _heard_ the word until today.”

“It does seem like they have things that they could teach us,” Alec said carefully. “What you did before was fearsome, Janey. I know you didn’t mean it, but that almost makes it more frightening.”

“I don’t trust them,” I said sullenly. “I don’t trust anyone but you.”

“I don’t trust them either,” Alec admitted. “At the same time- if they meant us harm wouldn’t they have done something by now? They saved us from the fire when they simply could have let us die. That must mean something. And they said if we go with them to this Volterra we’ll meet others like us and maybe there will be somewhere we can belong. We can leave whenever we want too, so we can go and see what we can learn, and then if we don’t like it we can go off by ourselves like always.”

I saw the sense in what he was saying. There was also a big part of me that _wanted_ to go. These red-eyed vampires, as terrifying as they were, fascinated me. And the idea of riches and luxury beyond imagining was a seductive one for someone who had always lived as I had. To think of being in a place grander than the manor house I stood in, the finest house in the village…I could not even envision it.

“We’ll accompany them to this place they were talking of,” I said at last. “But if we don’t like it, if either of us doesn’t like it, we’ll leave. Agreed?”

“Agreed,” Alec answered solemnly, and the two of us slapped palms.

“Splendid!”

I took a step backwards as Aro seemed to magically appear beside me. He took my hand as if to steady me, and smiled at me indulgently. “My dears, I couldn’t be happier that you’ve decided to come with us for a visit! I’m sure you will find Volterra to your liking. It’s a delightful city and our accommodations will surely be quite a revelation to you after the dwellings you’ve been accustomed to.” He looked around him with distaste. “Even the lowest dungeon in Volterra is far superior to this hovel.”

It was hard to comprehend. All I had known in my life was our little hut, the forest around it, and the village. I knew there were far distant cities where people lived crowded like rabbits in a burrow, and castles where kings ate meat every day and the knights wore armour and rode warhorses in tournaments, but that bore almost no relevance to my life at all.

“You will see all that and more, sweetling,” Lord Aro said softly, giving my hand a gentle squeeze. “You have been given the sacred gift, and that gives you the world.”

“Where is Volterra?” Alec asked, a little uncertainly. “Is it far? Do you need a horse?”

Philippe chuckled. “Further than you’ve ever been my friend!”

“Tuscany,” Aro said patiently. “The seat of the Romans and all their power is now the province of the Volturi and it is from there that we guide the vampire world.”

“Tuscany.” The word was unfamiliar, and seeing the blank expression on my face Aro sighed and shook his head.

“Over a hundred miles to the north of Rome, although I suppose you’ve never even _seen_ a map. We have _beautiful_ maps in my library in Volterra, wonderful illuminations and engravings…perhaps you shall enjoy looking at them in time. After you’ve washed, of course,” he added hastily.

Philippe grinned. “There’ll be many things to interest and entertain you at Volterra! And I for one vote that we get moving now, rather than waste any more time here.” He nudged Alec towards the door. “Come on friends, come outside and you’ll learn why it is you don’t need a horse.”

“What about…them?” Alec indicated the bodies still slumped on the table. “Shouldn’t we bury them?”

Aro looked nonplussed. “To what end? What does it matter? We have means to dispose of bodies in Volterra, but in this grubby little backwater I should not think it make any difference.”

Philippe looked indifferently across the room at the corpses. “I’ll bury a human once I’m done with them if I want to hide them,” he offered. “But there’s no one left in the village for it to matter, and they’ll be little but bones by the time anyone should happen along this way. Come, let’s leave this place. I have spent far more time than I would like here.”

The sun was beginning to drop down behind the trees when we went out to the yard. The shimmer and glow of our vampire skin was less obvious in the fading light but still there, and I smiled at Alex as I moved my bare arms and watched the sparkle.

“It’s so sharp,” Alec murmured. “All my senses…is it that way for you? I can smell everything, and _see_ everything, and _hear_ everything.” He crouched down and traced his fingers through the dirt of the yard, a look of wonder on his face.

Ignoring Aro and Philippe standing somewhat impatiently at the edge of the forest, I knelt beside Alec. “You can hear it? All the creatures?”

“And smell them,” he whispered. “I bet that’s the rabbits on the eastern hill. And the river, can you smell the river?”

I could. The water, the earth, trees and creatures…half of me longed to simply return to our home, to the small, familiar hut in the forest I had been intimately acquainted with since babyhood. Did I really want to go somewhere far away from all that I knew?

But in amongst all the other scents was the sour smell of the pyre, and I remembered that back in our clearing I would find no mother and no Bran, and this place had been where they had tried to kill us. It was no longer home, and could never be again. I rose to my feet and held out my hand to Alec. “Come on,” I said softly. “They’re waiting for us.”

“Now my friends, you’ll discover what’s fun about being one of ours!” Philippe said with a laugh. Without a pause he seized Alec’s hand in one of his, and mine in the other, and began to run.

I screamed, but before the sound had even faded away I realised that I hadn’t needed to be fearful. This new, powerful vampire body of mine could run like the wind, even keeping up with Philippe’s much longer legs. When he saw that I was keeping pace with him Philippe dropped my hand, and I looked past him and laughed at Alec.

“I’m faster than you!” I shouted.

In return Alec grinned. “Never!” he shouted, putting on a burst of speed that I immediately kept up with. Mile by mile we kept together, running so fast that our hair flew in the wind and the scenery blurred at the edges of our vision. We didn’t tire, we didn’t stumble, we didn’t feel the leaves and twigs that whipped our skin as we shot past. I forgot about the pyre, about Mother and Bran and all the blood…I didn’t think of anything but the speed and the joy of moving and the all-encompassing rush of freedom.

I grinned at Alec wickedly, and before he could even blink I kicked my foot at him and tripped him up. He grabbed me as he fell and the two of us wrestled, both of us laughing in exhilaration at our new strength, trying uselessly to best each other. It was only when we crashed into a tree and the giant fell, shaking the ground under our feet that we stopped.

“We did that?!” Alec exclaimed, looking at the fallen tree in amazement.

Philippe seemed highly amused. “We told you that you were strong.”

But _that_ strong? I shook my head, and couldn’t help wishing I had had even a fraction of this enormous strength and power when I was human. Then they could never have taken me, never judged me and found me evil and set about punishing me.

“Come along now,” Aro ordered impatiently. “I would very much like to be back at Volterra as soon as possible.”

“Let them play a little,” Philippe said tolerantly. “Don’t you remember what it was like when you first learned of the strength and the speed and…”

“I’ve been wearing this robe for over four days, Philippe! It’s filthy and it reeks of burned human flesh!” Aro snapped. “I don’t wish to waste time remembering anything!”

Alec and I scrambled to our feet, with a sideways look and grin. But it seemed prudent not to antagonise Aro, who was clearly the authority figure, so we meekly ran along at his heels as he took flight through the trees.

The sea appeared out of the gloom and I slowed my run as I stared in awe. I had never seen anything so vast, had never even _imagined_ that such a wonder as this endless, glittering water was possible.

“It’s…it’s forever.” I breathed in the salty smell of it and tried to take it in. “Does it ever end? Truly?”

Alec shook his head. “We’re not going on that. It’s not safe,” he said flatly. “We can swim the width of the river, but that’s like a hundred rivers! It doesn’t ever end!”

Philippe laughed gently. “Remember that you’ve changed. You could swim a _thousand_ rivers if you wanted to, let alone this little puddle! You’re immeasurably strong, and you don’t need to breathe, so even an ocean couldn’t stop you.”

“You’re not going to be swimming in any case,” Lord Aro said. “I dislike it, and so I have a boat and we shall be travelling in that.”

Alec looked at me with his eyes wide. We’d talked about boats, but we’d never seen one. And now we were going to sail in one…my mind was reeling with all the new information and experiences.

The boat was small, anchored in a small cove at the bottom of a steep cliff. The descent had seemed frightening at first, as I dug my fingers and toes into bare, flat rock to make holds and looked down a dizzying height to the rocks below. But my strength and balance were so superior to that of my human self that it was easy, and I followed Philippe’s lead and jumped when I was halfway down. The fall felt like flying with the wind rushing past me and would have killed me if I was still human, but I landed as lightly as a cat. Alec was right behind me, and the two of us leaped into the boat and stood in the prow, staring in amazement at the cresting waves and the path of moonlight on the water. We were on our way to Volterra.


	11. Towards Volterra

The blood flooded my mouth and I gulped it down, desperate not to waste a drop. The human I had clamped to my mouth kicked feebly, her hands feeling like nothing more than the tickle of a summer breeze as she clawed ineffectually at me.

She didn’t struggle for long. So much smaller and weaker than the lord I had first feasted on back in our village, her blood stopped flowing far too soon and I sat back with a scowl.

“I’m still thirsty.”

No one paid me any mind. Philippe and Alec were still feeding, both of them clasping men-at-arms that we had found guarding the small castle. Neither of them could think of anything but the blood that was sating their thirst. Aro was ransacking a sturdy looking wooden chest and, ignoring the body of the serving girl I had drained, I rose to my feet and walked over to see what he was looking for.

The chest was full of clothes. Suddenly aware of the burned and scorched remains of my tunic, I leaned over beside Aro and plucked out a fine wool tunic.

“I could wear this,” I said hopefully. “My old one is half burned up.”

Aro barely glanced at it. “No need. We’ll be back at Volterra soon enough, and Sulpicia will find you something suitable. I was hoping to find cloaks so we can travel the rest of the way by day.” He lifted out two long cloaks, made of a coarse, undyed woollen weave. “These will do. Put it on.”

I took the cloak that he handed me and slung it over my shoulders, fastening the brass clasp that held it together. It was so long that it dragged along the ground, and when Aro tugged the hood up it slipped down and covered my face to my chin.

I could hear Alec laugh, and I angrily shoved back the hood so I could see. “It’s too big.”

“All the better,” Aro said. “It will shield you very well from the sun, sweetling. Take the leggings off that serving girl and put them on too; we do not want to be seen and your tunic has burned away to show far too much skin.”

Grudgingly I wrestled the leggings off the limp legs of the girl. For a moment I paused, looking at her still face and sightless eyes, and realised that I knew nothing of her. I had spoken not a word to her, simply snatching her up as we burst into the keep’s hall and then tearing into the soft skin of her throat to get at the enticing pulse beat. Now she was dead. Shrugging a little helplessly I turned away.

“Do you steal everything?” Alec asked Aro curiously.

Aro looked affronted. “Stealing? Of course not. The vaults in Volterra are piled with more treasure and wealth than anywhere else in the world. I can more than afford to purchase whatever I wish! However there are times when it’s better not to be seen in a particular location. And it’s not as though _they_ are in need of these items any longer, since the dead hardly require cloaks.”

Alec wrapped the other cloak around himself. It fit no better than the one I wore did, and his face disappeared into the deep shadow of the hood as he followed Aro towards the door. I yanked the leggings on and tied them before I followed hurriedly.

I wished I knew where we were, as we ran onwards. The sunlight showed up the brilliant colours of everything around me, and I wished we could slow down and I could explore this new land that seemed very different to my forest of home. But Aro chided me gently every time I slowed, and I was uncertain enough of what he might do that I didn’t refuse to follow his lead.

I heard the sound of stonemasons at work long before the trees cleared enough for us to see them. As Aro and Philippe slowed to a human pace, I pushed my hood back to get a better look at what was happening ahead of us, but Aro’s hand locked around my wrist.

“Keep yourself covered sweetling. We are nearly home,” he said quietly. “Although our castle is in the city of Volterra, we feel it is…prudent…to have several entrances and exits.” He nodded towards the almost completed stone church swarming with workers, which we could see from the shade of the tree we stood below.

I stepped hastily back when I saw the stone cross they were raising to the point of the roof. “We don’t go into the church of the Christian god,” I said defensively. “You didn’t say anything about you being Christ worshippers!”

Aro let out a peal of genuine laughter. “Oh sweetling, no! This church building will never be consecrated and never used for service. We of the Volturi own the land, and have ordered the church to be built so that we can conceal the secret entrance to our castle that lies in the cellar.”

“But if the builders know about it then the entrance is hardly secret,” Alec objected.

Aro smiled coldly. “They were informed that the tunnel is unsafe and have been provided with incentive enough to keep their mouths closed for now. Later…well, terrible accidents _do_ happen on building sites. People sometimes meet with rather unfortunate fates.” He sighed.

“Looks like they’ll be finished in a week or so,” Philippe observed, ignoring Aro’s overt threats.

“You must be sure to inform Caius of their progress. He’ll be happy to take care of them once their work is done,” Aro murmured. “It will be pleasant to have this entrance freely available again, instead of only during the hours of night when there is no work being done,” he added, looking impatiently up at the sky.

While we waited for the sun to drop and the builders and workers to return to their homes, Alec and I investigated the small, treed hill we were on. The air smelled differently to home, and the trees were completely unfamiliar to me.

“What is it?” I asked curiously, running my fingers along one of the branches and plucking off one of the hard seed pods and sniffing it. “Can you eat it?”

“Cupressus sempervirens,” Aro answered. “A cypress. Native to this area and no, you certainly do _not_ eat it.”

“I didn’t mean _me_ ,” I said, waving my hand vaguely in the direction of the humans at the church. “I meant them.”

Thinking of the men, and of what I now ate instead of tree nuts, I felt the venom run in my mouth and my throat begin to burn. “I’m thirsty.”

“You must wait,” Aro said lightly. “It is hard in the beginning, but despite all your power you will need to learn restraint too.”

“But they’re just there…” I whined, bouncing agitatedly on my toes. The more I thought about it, the thirstier I became, and the further away any thoughts from my conscience were.

“And what would happen if you simply appeared and tore into one of their throats?” Aro inquired sweetly.

“They can’t hurt me,” I muttered.

“But tales and rumours may,” Aro answered. “Look at your own human life, sweetling…it was tales and rumours that took you to the stake. Would you invite a similar fate again?”

“It’s different now though,” Alec said, drifting to my side. “You said we’re immortal, that we can’t die.”

“And you cannot simply die,” Aro agreed. “But you can be destroyed. Other vampires can be a very real threat, and for the sake of all in our world we believe it best to maintain a certain distance from the humans too. They do not need to know about what lives amongst them, and you will do well to never let on to any human what you are, unless you intend to kill them immediately. It is necessary that you learn to be discreet about your activities.”

I didn’t care about discretion. All I cared about my sating my ever growing thirst. But Aro’s voice had been firm and his eyes were as hard as flint as he looked at me, so I scowled and began to scale the tree we were sheltering beneath. From high in the branches I watched the builders and stonemasons begin to pack away their tools as the sun fell, and then in small groups they began trudging away.

“There’s one man left,” I said urgently, dropping from the top of the tree to land silently beside Aro. “I _want_ him. I’m so _thirsty…_ ” I couldn’t stop the low growl.

Aro frowned at me, and Philippe chuckled and vanished, only to return a second later. “The apprentice stonemason,” he reported. “He’s finishing off the last stone angel.”

Alec was thirsty too. I could feel how tense he was, standing beside me, and I wondered if the two of us together were strong enough to resist Aro. _All we’d have to do was get past him,_ I mused, _then we’d reach the human and once he was dead it wouldn’t matter, we may as well drain him dry then…_

However it didn’t come to that. Aro simply shook his head at Philippe and sighed. “I suppose they are mere babies, and the thirst knows no patience. I want my angel completed though! Leave the human alone until he’s done working.”

Philippe looked at Alec and I a little uneasily. “There’s only the one though. Newborns sharing…it may not go well, my Lord.”

“They can be put back together if needs be,” Aro said dismissively.

I didn’t really know what they meant, but I couldn’t give it another thought. Not with the scent of the human growing stronger as I crept closer, and his heartbeat sounding steadily into the early evening. Barely had his tools left his hands than Alec and I leaped, seizing him between us and savagely tearing into opposite sides of his neck. I moaned and felt my brother shudder as we shared our feast, the thirst disappearing under the delicious, soothing flow of blood.

Alec and I sat back at the same time, and he reached across and swiped a smear of blood from my cheek. “You still eat like a pig,” he said teasingly, and I stuck my tongue out at him.

“You should see _yourself_!”

We scrambled to our feet as Aro and Philippe approached.

“You’ve spattered blood on my angel,” Aro said, lifting the stone sculpture as though it weighed nothing and inspecting it from every angle. “It looks rather fetching. Now Philippe, you must dispose of that human, and I shall take the children to the castle. Marcus and Caius will be _so_ interested to see what we’ve brought them!”

Philippe grinned at Alec and I. “See you soon, friends,” he said cheerfully, picking up the drained human body and vanishing back towards the trees.

Alec and I followed Aro into the church. It wasn’t consecrated ground, but I still felt a deep sense of unease at the stone walls rising around me and the heavy wooden cross that hung on the far wall. Aro paid it all no mind though, lifting one of the large stones from the floor by the altar and gesturing Alec and I towards the dark hole it revealed. “Down there.”

It was very dark, but my vampire eyes were sharp and with the thin light filtering through the entrance I could see that we were in a shallow cellar. It had no floor or walls, just heavy wooden beams supporting the church above. Alec and I could only just upright and Aro, when he dropped down behind us, had to walk deeply hunched over.

He lit a rush light and handed it to Alec before he moved the heavy stone back into place. “The tunnel begins over here,” he told us happily, taking back the light and leading us to the far end. “It has always ended in a cave on the hillside, but we felt that some place more concealed would serve us better. There has been the occasional…incident. We’ve had the church constructed to prevent that in the future.” Aro stepped behind several wooden beams and a stone tunnel seemed to open up out of nowhere. It was narrow, but tall enough at least that Aro could walk upright. “The tunnel leads directly to the main hall of the Volturi, where we entertain our guests and dispense justice when necessary. Oh…you have so much to learn, my little ones!” He turned his head to smile at us, and his red eyes glowed like fire as they reflected the light from the torch he held. “So very much to learn!”

I waited until Aro’s back was to us again before I looked sideways at Alec. My brother raised an eyebrow at me, but all I could do was shrug. We were here to learn, and should it prove too much we would simply walk away. It had occurred to me, listening to Aro on the journey here, that there didn’t seem to be as much to know as he had implied at the beginning and perhaps he had other motives for bringing us here. We would have to be on alert.

Straightening my back, I moved forward through the stone tunnel to meet the rest of the Volturi.


	12. The Volturi Coven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N – We’re finally in Volterra, and about to meet the rest of the Volturi! I just wanted to say that visually I’ve gone with movie!Volturi rather than the description given in the Guide. Mostly, I must admit, because Michael Sheen’s Aro was so utterly, gloriously perfect! I also just couldn’t get it into my head that Caius was meant to be so much older, and I really liked Dakota Fanning’s look for Jane.

Every building I had ever seen in my life paled away to insignificance in the face of the main hall of the Volturi. It opened up from the arched doorway that ended the tunnel, ceilings soaring a hundred feet high, the floor a perfectly laid stone mosaic swirling out from the centre of the room, walls hung with richly ornate tapestries. Three enormous, gilded thrones were the only furniture in the room.

Alec was equally spellbound. Neither of us moved more than a step from the tunnel’s end as we gazed around us in wonder. How could anything so imposing have ever been built? This made the lord’s manor home of our village look like it was fit for nothing but pigs!

Our reaction must have pleased Aro, because he was smiling as he watched us. “Home,” he said in satisfaction. “I rarely leave. You should feel honoured that I made an exception for the pair of you. Now come, there are others you must meet. Marcus, Caius!”

He barely raised his voice, but a moment later two new vampires appeared silently in front of us. They were very dissimilar, one with brown hair and a face that bore lines of age and grief and one much younger, with the same flaxen hair of Alec and I. Both of them wore identical looks of incredulity as they stared at us with their blood red eyes.

“Marcus, Caius, my dear companions! I’d like to introduce you to our newest friends, Jane and Alec,” Aro declared.

“Aro…what have you done?” The older vampire shook his head. “They are very, very young.”

“Too young,” the blond snapped. “Far too young! You said you did not intend to change them yet, that you went with Philippe only in order to _investigate.”_

“So I did,” Aro said calmly, walking further into the room. “However the situation was more dire than expected and immediate action was necessary. Philippe and I were only just in time to rescue them from the pyre- you know how hasty these humans can be when they get a notion into their heads! They thought the two of them were little witches. Of course, if it is as I hope then perhaps they will…”

“They will _nothing!”_ The younger vampire looked furious. “After all the work we’ve done with strengthening our position and vanquishing the immortal children you bring us these…”

“Silence!” Aro whirled to face us all, his eyes blazing. “I will not hear it Caius, you will not speak the name of those abominations in connection with these two of mine! _They are not children._ Do you understand?”

Caius sounded more subdued when he spoke again, but he stood his ground. “They are young, and people will talk. Can we take that risk, Aro? Can the Volturi be seen to condone the creation of…them…in any form?”

“It matters not what people say.” Aro lifted his head arrogantly. “ _They are what I say they are._ ”

“But should it get out, should someone object…” Caius persisted. “Aro, it’s sheer insanity to take the chance! We must rid ourselves of them now, before this goes any further.”

“Do _you_ object Caius?” Aro said, and his soft voice was so menacing that I instinctively took a step back. “Are you questioning my decision here? You know what Philippe has seen, and what it might mean. Indeed, almost immediately after they were changed there was a moment…” His eyes slid across to me for a moment, and he went silent.

“I say we should be very, very wary. Our position is strong, but there are still those who would look for an excuse to defy us,” Caius said shortly. “I don’t feel it’s wise to hand them that excuse as a gift.”

Aro shook his head irritably. “Nonsense Caius. You are seeing what isn’t there. Yes, they’re small, but they are not as young as they may appear. You know that humans don’t grow when they have insufficient food, and these two were living no better than animals. They’ll be quite different once the dirt has been scraped away and the vermin removed from that disgusting nest of hair and they’ve been dressed appropriately.”

I glared at him. We hadn’t exactly been living in conditions anything like that castle of course, but we had done what we could! “We took care of ourselves perfectly well!” I snapped.

The three vampires looked at me, as though they were surprised to see me there listening to their arguments and even more astonished that I had dared to speak.

“And I’m _not_ a child,” I added, made braver by the fact that none of them had made any move to hit me for speaking out of turn. “We’re thirteen.”

Caius narrowed his eyes at me, and the other one, Marcus I supposed, gave a faint smile.

“The girl is bold enough Aro, I’ll grant her that.”

“Quite the little wildcat,” Aro said happily. “I’m very, very sure she’s going to be an asset Marcus. Now, since we’re all agreed…”

“I’ve agreed to nothing!” Caius hissed. “I insist we discuss this further!”

“Caius, my dear friend,” Aro began conciliatorily. “Of course you have concerns, and you know how much I value your opinions and your determination to keep us strong! But these two are not the threat you perceive them to be. In fact, quite the opposite…if Philippe’s instinct proves true, they may become extremely valuable.”

I glanced across at Alec. What were they going on about? What were we doing here? It was grand and beautiful and Aro had made promises, but we had always taken care of ourselves perfectly well. At least, we had until the end, when the villagers had come with their weapons and their fire…but it was different now. We were vampires, with unparalleled strength and power. We didn’t need them.

I swept my cloak around me, as haughtily as I could manage, although it wasn’t very successful given the ridiculous length of it. “It doesn’t matter what any of you say anyway,” I said. “Alec and I are going. We’ve changed out minds…we don’t need you.”

Aro looked flabbergasted. “Excuse me?”

“We’re going. I didn’t come here to be insulted and threatened.” I took Alec’s hand and turned to the tunnel entrance.

“See, you don’t even have control over them!” Caius was incensed. “Where is the respect and obedience that we of the Volturi require?”

“They simply don’t understand the honour and privilege of their new place,” Aro snapped. “Once they meet Chelsea the adjustment will be easier. Perhaps instead of all this endless arguing you could do something useful and fetch her? Jane and Alec, stop this nonsense at once. Of course you’re not leaving.”

I glared at him over my shoulder. “You said we could leave if we didn’t like it here. I don’t like it here.”

“You’ll not be leaving,” Caius said flatly, meeting my eyes for the first time, the loathing clear. “You either remain with us, as Aro wishes, or we make an end to you. You’ve already experienced one pyre…perhaps you’d like another one.”

“No!” Alec gripped my hand convulsively, and I felt the fear and anger stir.

“Don’t worry,” I whispered to him. “They won’t hurt us…we’ll run, and this time no one will catch us.”

Foolish optimism! I would learn in time that things nearly always went Aro’s way, and right then he wanted us to stay in Volterra. Only two steps away from the tunnel entrance I had barely reached it when I crashed against the broad stone chest of Philippe, who had come through the tunnel behind us. He caught me in his strong arms, and grinned down at me.

“Where are you going in such a hurry, wildcat?”

“Let me go!”

Laughing, Philippe dropped his arms, but even then I couldn’t run. Because behind me Aro had Alec in his grip, his arm tight across my brother’s neck, and I could never leave him.

“Jane. You will stop and do as you’re told, or I will tear his head from his neck,” Aro said dispassionately.

For a moment I froze but, just as it had back in the village manor house, my anger and hatred rose up in a white-hot flame of power that seemed to explode outward from my head, sending me reeling. Even as I staggered back I heard the screaming, Aro, Caius, Philippe, Marcus, even Alec… _oh my brother, I’m sorry!_

There was no time to mend matters, not then. Because right then I felt something creeping up on me, a darkness that stole the voice from my throat and the sight from eyes and all feeling from my body. A darkness that left me nothing but terror, a horrifying blankness, a _nothingness_ that could only mean death…

_Alec!_

I don’t know if I screamed his name aloud. I don’t know if he heard it even if I did. But the nothingness vanished as quickly as it had come, and I was back in the great hall of Volterra, staring with terrified eyes at five other vampires who all seemed as uncertain and afraid as I was.

Behind me, Philippe cuffed the back of my head. “It’s you doing that, isn’t it wildcat?” He smiled at Aro triumphantly. “I saw it true this time my Lord, did I not?”

“She did that?” Caius’ gaze seemed to pierce right through me. “You caused that pain? That nothingness?”

I shook my head, still half frightened. “I…not the nothingness. I felt that.” I shuddered. “The other though…I don’t know.” I looked at Alec helplessly.

“I’m sure you understand why I could not see them die,” Aro interjected. “Philippe saw the potential, and now we are beginning to see it realised.” His eyes gleamed brilliantly as he smiled at me. “I believed you would be special, sweetling. Both of you.” With Alec’s neck still held in his death-grip, he stroked his face with his other hand. “That nothingness as a counterpoint to the pain…it’s more perfect than I could have imagined! Such a marvellous, wondrous gift! And that’s why you can’t leave, not just yet…you must let us help you discover your powers and learn to control them.”

I hesitated. I didn’t want to stay, but feeling that hideous sense of nothing, of being anchored nowhere and hardly existing at all…my _brother_ had done that?

“You did that to me?” I whispered to Alec, ignoring the other red eyes that watched us so curiously. I stepped closer to him, reaching out to touch his hand. “You made it so dark?”

“I don’t know,” Alec blinked fast. “It all hurt so terribly, and everyone was arguing so much that I couldn’t think, and I wanted it all to just _go away._ ”

I thought about how it had been for me, about feeling all that rage and hatred and wanting to avenge myself on those who had made me feel it, and that energy like fire flowing through my veins. And then it had been flung out of me and they had all _screamed_ …

“I made you hurt,” I said slowly. “I made you _all_ hurt.”

“Dreadfully!” Aro said with a beaming smile. “Absolutely _excruciating_ , sweetling! And you did it deliberately? You felt it?”

“I felt it happen,” I said, half unwillingly. “But I don’t know how I did it.”

“You say that like it’s a good thing?” Caius questioned Aro, although he spoke softly and didn’t look at me. “You think what she can do is marvellous? You do realise the threat this poses?”

“Indeed I do.” Aro clapped his hands. “Imagine how our enemies will _cower_. It’s a delightful thought, is it not? Marcus?”

Marcus shrugged. “I see where it might be useful. The lack of control concerns me though. And the girl, at least, is not so tractable.”

Aro waved his free hand dismissively. “Details, details. All will be worked out in due course! I’m sure once dear Jane makes friends with our Chelsea she will feel quite differently about spending some time here in Volterra with us! And of course one would expect some initial difficulties with managing such incredible talents, but I have no doubts that all things may be solved in time.” He looked at Caius. “You must agree with Marcus and I…surely you can see the potential for us all? We are building something extraordinary here and these two, with their gifts, _must_ be part of it.”

After a long beat of silence, Caius nodded.

“Splendid! I knew you would see it the way I do. First things first though. We cannot possibly begin our work together whilst they are so appallingly filthy. Really Caius, you cannot even _begin_ to imagine the hovel that passed for a manor house that I was forced to spend the last few days in!” Aro shook his head and sniffed distastefully at Alec’s hair, which was just below his chin as he held my brother against him. “They both must be bathed and given some appropriate clothing. Philippe, you can show this young man to the bathhouse and see to his needs, and I shall take my sweetling upstairs to the tower.”

“We’ll go together,” I said quickly. I didn’t want to lose my brother in this castle. I had no idea how big it was, and how I would go about finding him.

Aro laughed. “Oh no, my dear, that wouldn’t do at all! Alec will go with Philippe, and you will be assisted by my lovely wife Sulpicia. She’ll be delighted to meet you, and I’m sure she’ll find you a gown and do something with your…hair.”

He stroked his own, flawlessly smooth hair and I scowled. So my hair was a little big tangled. Maybe even choked with mats and little bits of sticks and leaves and _maybe_ some fleas, but I’d like to see him do better if he didn’t even have a comb.

“You can both enjoy your baths,” Aro continued blithely. “And then once that’s done we will be able to show you around Volterra and introduce you. There is so much to see here! You will enjoy it all, but first, do as you’re asked.”

Almost without me noticing, Alec had been transferred from Aro’s grip to Philippe’s arms. Being bigger than Aro, all Philippe had to do was wrap a huge hand around the back of his neck and squeeze a little for me to understand the implicit threat. _That_ was why we were being separated. As long as we each behaved, we would see each other again. If not…

I nodded to Aro. “A bath. Fine.”

“Follow me then, sweetling.” Over his shoulder, as we walked away, he called out to Marcus and Caius, “Find Chelsea. Have her sent upstairs immediately.”


	13. The Wives

I followed Aro up several flights of stairs. My legs never felt tired, but it took longer than it should have because of the constant distractions along the way. The stone steps themselves were new to me, and I marvelled at the construction of the building I was now in. As we gained height there were narrow arrow slit windows built into the stone walls, through which I caught fascinating glimpses of the city beyond. Even up here I could faintly smell the scent of human blood, and I paused for a moment, standing on tiptoe to see out. The Volturi castle was built into the walls, and the rest of the city spread out before me.

“It’s all people?” I said in disbelief. “Under all those roofs?”

Aro nodded. “More people than you’ve ever seen in your life. I promised you more than you had in your little corner of the world, and you’ve only begun to catch a glimpse of what _more_ means.”

I breathed in the scent again. At this distance it didn’t raise the harsh burn of the thirst, but it still smelled very appealing. “I’m thirsty.”

“You can wait,” Aro said implacably. “You _must_ wait, now that you are here in Volterra, because the humans of the city are not to be touched. Ever.”

I looked at him indignantly. “But they’re right there! I want them!”

“You’ll have more than your fill when it’s time, little one,” Aro said, sweeping up the stairs ahead of me. “No one here in my castle will go without, but the humans of Volterra are under our protection. Saint Marcus drove the vampires from Volterra you see…now it is the safest city in the land and no one need fear the dark bite.” Aro smiled in amusement.

The stone staircase we were climbing ended in a short hallway lit by torches in wall brackets. Two vampires in grey cloaks immediately stood at attention as Aro strode towards them, looking at me inquisitively.

“Felix, Appius,” Aro greeted them cordially. “I trust all is well with the ladies?”

“Of course my lord.” One of the vampires bowed his head to Aro. “Your lady will be glad to see you returned.”

I was a little surprised at their obsequious behaviour. I had deduced that Aro held power, but Philippe had questioned him and Caius had not hesitated to argue with him. These two could barely meet his eyes and neither of them asked about me, although I could tell by the quick, darting glances sent my way that they were wildly curious.

The doors that the two vampire guards hurried to open for us were inlaid with shiny stones and bright metals, and carved with exquisite detail. I couldn’t help but stop and run my hands over the fantastic creatures I saw there, like nothing I had known from my own forest, and wonder if they existed in this world that I was now part of.

“My lord, it’s so lovely to see you again.”

I looked up sharply at the soft, sweet tones. It was a woman coming towards us, smiling at Aro with affection, her red eyes bright. She wore a gown of dark green, slashed through to show the cream linen of her shift, and her dark hair was uncovered like a maid’s and hung down past her waist, although she was not young.

“My dear.” Aro took her outstretched hand, raised it to his lips and kissed her. “I have returned after a successful journey. A _very_ successful journey,” he added in pleased tones. “I have someone I would like you to meet.”

He beckoned me forward and uneasily I stepped closer. I wished Alec were with me. I couldn’t remember the last time I had been forced to experience something new without him by my side, and I felt off balance and even slightly afraid to be alone.

“My lady, this is Jane, who has come to join us. Jane, this is my lovely wife, the lady Sulpicia.” Aro did the introductions.

I didn’t say anything as the woman looked at me. Her smile slipped a little as she took me in from the top of my head with my tangled hair down to my bare feet, and she looked at Aro a little doubtfully. “I’m sure you know what you’re doing my lord, but she…”

“Of course I know what I’m doing.” Aro’s voice was light, but his wife saw the same steel in his gaze that I did and subsided. “She is small and slight, but she and her twin are mine and will be made welcome here.”

“Welcome Jane.” Sulpicia took my hands and smiled at me warmly. “How lovely to have another girl here! Athenodora will be so pleased to meet you. And Corin of course, oh, you’ll love our sweet Corin, everyone does!” She looked down at me again, with a faint frown. “But your clothes…they won’t do at all! My lord, you must allow me to take our guest and make her clean and comfortable.”

“Of course my dear, no one will do so as well as you,” Aro smiled indulgently. “Take her to your bathhouse and find some suitable clothes. Introduce her to Athenodora and Corin, and I believe Chelsea will be coming up to pay a visit soon also. Jane, my sweetling, go with Sulpicia and enjoy yourself, and I shall see you again in time.” He kissed his wife’s hand again, and then his dark robes swished as he vanished from the room.

Sulpicia’s smile faded, to be replaced by a look of concern as she looked at me. I took a defensive step backward.

“Don’t be afraid, child,” she said gently. “Where did he find you?”

I named my village, but she showed no recognition. “It was over the water,” I said at last. “We went in a boat.”

Sulpicia nodded at that. “Welcome to the tower of the Volturi. This is where Athenodora and I live, accompanied by many of the other ladies and gentlemen of the guard.” Sulpicia waved a languid hand around the room.

I became more conscious of how dirty I was and how coarse and burned and filthy the clothes I wore were as I looked around the beautiful tower room. The windows were larger than the narrow windows that had lit the stairway, and through them I could see the darkening sky. The beautifully laid, smooth stone floor had all kinds of exotic animal skins scattered about, and the walls were hung with heavy, embroidered tapestries. The furniture was made of dark, carved wood and there were soft, plump cushions and soft fabrics everywhere. There were books, and an unfamiliar object that might have been a musical instrument over by the window. It would have been inviting if I had not been so intimidated and felt so terribly out of place.

“Come,” she said gently, taking my arm and leading me across the room to another carved and adorned door. “We have our own bathing room up here, although there is also another on a lower floor. You will enjoy it my dear.”

It seemed each room was going to be more wondrous than the last. The bathroom I stepped into was dazzling with its walls covered in tiles of gold and white and blues and greens, laid down in fantastic mosaics, and a floor of some slick black stone. In the centre of the room was a pool of still, reflective water with the same gleaming black stone forming steps to enter it. The lanterns reflected from all the tiles and the mirrors and the light made my skin shimmer.

I moved across to the polished silver mirror. I had never had anything other than the Goddess pool to look at my reflection with, and never had I seen myself so clearly as I did there in the tower of the Volturi women. For a long moment I stared at what everyone else around me was seeing, a small and filthy girl with a ragged, scorched tunic and stolen hide leggings and long tangled hair, and I felt ashamed. But my eyes were red and my face was hard, and I remembered how I had made them all scream and I stood straight as another women entered the room.

“Oh Sulpicia, what has Aro done this time?”

She wore a long gown of deep blue and her hair was bunched up in curls on her head, which she shook in dismay as she drifted over to me. “She’s only a little girl.”

Sulpicia appeared at my side, her delicate fingers unfastening the clasp of the cloak and letting it drop to the floor. “I know darling, but he says she is one of us now.”

The woman shook her head. “I thought they were trying to crush out the practice, not take it up themselves! I doubt Caius is pleased.”

“But he is pleased with so little,” Sulpicia murmured, effortlessly tearing the neck of my shift and tunic so that they slid unhindered off. She knelt and began to untie the laces of the leggings.

“Look at her!” The other woman was staring openly at my naked body, fully revealed as the leggings were tugged off too. “She has barely grown into her womanhood Sulpicia! Have you even had your moon blood child?”

I was so confused I didn’t even know what to do. Certainly I had not grown a woman’s body like Mother, but my breasts had budded and I wasn’t exactly a little girl anymore, although I had not yet had my moon time. “No, not that,” I mumbled.

“Oh stop, both of you.” A third vampire woman appeared soundlessly beside me, nudging me gently towards the deep pool of water. “Pay no mind to them. Jane, is it? A new lady is always something interesting here, but there’s no need to fuss so, Sulpicia and Athenodora! You’re making our guest feel quite uncomfortable. Slip into the bath Jane, and refresh yourself.”

The bath had seating around the edge, but the water in the centre was deep enough that I was fully submerged when I stepped in to it. For a moment I closed my eyes in the water and pretended I was back home, in the river with Alec, and none of this had happened.

The lady who had pushed me into the water was smiling at me over the edge of the bath when I swam back up to the seat. She was younger than the other two ladies and her red hair was bundled up inside a net studded with sparkling stones. “I’m Corin. It’s lovely to meet you. Welcome to Volterra.”

I couldn’t help smiling back. “Hello.”

“Athenodora, perhaps you could go and look for a gown for Jane? We can alter it as needed, that won’t take long. Sulpicia, help me here.”

It seemed I had no choice but to sit docilely in the bath as I was scrubbed and combed and brushed and massaged and oiled and rinsed from head to toe. The experience was bewildering. Bathing had only ever happened in summer, when Alec and I swam in the river. Occasionally we’d scrubbed hands and feet with sand and water when we’d been climbing trees for birds’ eggs and had too much sticky sap glue itself to our skin. But now I was in in warm, scented water being fussed over by two ladies, washed and anointed with their oils, and I didn’t even muster a single objection. Even when Sulpicia sat behind me with an ivory comb and worked every single tangle and mat from my hair I simply sat there, swirling my hands idly in the water and waiting patiently for her to be done.

“There,” Sulpicia said with a sigh, laying aside the comb and pouring several jugs of clear water over my hair. “Your hair is a beautiful colour child. We’ll need to take the scissors to the ends and neaten it I think, but it will look quite lovely.”

Compliantly I rose from the water when they told me to, and let them wrap me in the softest linen robe I had ever seen while they sat me before the mirror. Sulpicia wielded the scissors and, with Athenodora and Corin watching anxiously, cut the ragged ends of my hair so that it hung, straight and silky and the colour of butter, halfway down my back.

“It won’t grow back,” Corin explained. “That’s why we want it to be perfect.”

“I didn’t even know it was like this,” I said wonderingly, combing my hair through my fingers. I looked quite different in the silver mirror now.

“Thirteen years of dirt scrubbed off, child,” Sulpicia said with a pleased look. “They’ll hardly recognise you when they see you again. Athenodora, the dress?”

The others… “What’s my brother doing?” I asked, as the three women pulled a white linen shift over my head, followed by a sky blue under tunic with a darker blue over it, slashed to show the lighter colour beneath. It must have belonged to somebody else before Athenodora altered it, but it fit as though it had been made for me.

“He’s downstairs with Philippe.”

It was a new voice. Another vampire had come into the room, a tall, slender lady with brown hair carelessly braided, wearing fine woollen hose below an embroidered tunic. It was more like the simple clothes I was used to seeing at home, although the fabrics and embroidery were far finer. This vampire girl smiled at me easily.

“Hello everyone! I’m Chelsea, Jane. It’s nice to meet you- I’ve been hearing all about you downstairs. It’s not every day Lord Aro brings us a baby, and now there are two of you!”

“I’m not a baby,” I said, but unlike before I wasn’t angered by term. “Aro said it to everyone, I’m not a child.”

Chelsea laughed. “I’m not talking about your human age. But in vampire terms you’re a newborn, and we haven’t had any for a little while so you and your brother are causing something of a scandal.” She looked across at the other women with a grin. “I can see you’ve made Corin’s acquaintance already! You must go down and meet the brother Corin, I’ve done what I can but the poor thing is far more agitated than he need be.”

“I’d like to go and see Alec now, please,” I said politely. “I’ve never been so clean ever in my life, you can’t possible get even a speck of dirt off me now, so I’d like to see my brother and make sure he’s okay.”

Sulpicia kissed my cheek. “Of course. Chelsea will accompany you. Come and see us again soon Jane, we’d love to get to know you more.”

Chelsea chuckled. “Come on Jane. Alec is downstairs in the library, and I’m sure he and Aro would love to see you again. You too Corin, I’m sure Jane would love to introduce you to her twin.”

Corin giggled, and held out her hand to me. Without a word, I nodded goodbye to the ladies and followed them out of the tower room.


	14. A Plan and a Purpose

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N – Hi all, hope you’re enjoying my foray over to the dark side. I’m not, lol. No, just kidding, the Volturi stuff is all really interesting to think about. It’s just that Jane is so…unpleasant? And yet I kind of feel sorry for her, which makes me feel like a bad person?  
> Just a couple of notes now that they’re all in Volterra. Many of the vampires mentioned here are original characters. Out of the Volturi vampires mentioned in Breaking Dawn and the Guide, not too many were around in the 8th century. Aro, Marcus and Caius, obviously, and Athenodora and Sulpicia for the wives. Felix was also around, and Corin and Chelsea and that’s about it. Chelsea was known as Charmion then, but I’ve just kept it as Chelsea in here to make it a bit more of a straightforward link with the books.  
> It’s also important to remember that Corin’s gift is making people content, and Chelsea’s gift is binding their loyalty to someone, in this case Aro. These gifts are subtly felt (at least in my headcanon) and so while they are absolutely key in Jane and Alec’s thoughts and behaviour, neither of them realise the extent to which they’re being manipulated.

**_ Chapter 14 – A Plan and a Purpose _ **

The same guards were outside the room. Without Aro there they were much more relaxed, and both of them looked at me appraisingly. The two of them were far bigger than anyone I had ever met, and even below the grey cloaks slung over their shoulders I could see how muscular they were. I wondered at the strength of them, and thought perhaps I wouldn’t really like to find out.

_Although if I could do to them what I did by mistake to Aro and Philippe and the others…_

“This is Jane,” Chelsea introduced me. “Aro’s newest darling…or so he hopes! Jane, this is Felix and Appius.”

“She’s barely out of the cradle,” the one called Appius sneered. “What good is that?”

Chelsea raised her eyebrows. “I wouldn’t let my Lord Aro hear you say that. As for what good she is…I’m looking forward to finding out. But a word of advice Appius- I’d wait a little while before you decide she’s beneath you. You may get a very unpleasant surprise if you continue to regard her with contempt.”

“They’re bored,” Corin sighed as we descended the stone stairwell. “I do what I can, but guarding the tower is no one’s favourite duty. We need more guards after what happened…last time.” She gave me a sideways glance.

“What happened?” I asked bluntly. “Why do you need more guards? Why do you need _any_ guards? It’s not as though anyone could possibly threaten you!”

“There are rules,” Corin said slowly. “They’re not onerous and it’s not difficult to keep them, but if you break the rules…there is little mercy here. Some of our previous guards failed to keep that in mind.”

“But why do there need to be guards?” I said slowly. “Who are you being protected from?”

“Lord Aro will explain these matters in detail,” Corin assured me. “You have no need to be afraid though, there has not been an outside threat to us for more than two hundred years. Right now the guards are a precaution more than anything. Marcus’ wife, Didyme…well, she was killed. So long ago, but his grief is still as fresh and sharp as the day she died. Aro and Caius would not like to live with such sorrow, so they keep the wives safe in the tower with the guards to protect them from any threat.”

“But you can leave if you want to? The guards aren’t to keep you prisoner?”

“Of course not,” Corin promised. “The guards are here for protection, should the need ever arise.”

Chelsea’s eyes were bright with laughter. “Whenever you’re tired of us Jane, you’re welcome to leave, I assure you of that. I have an inkling though, that you’re going to love Volterra and want to stay with us for a very, very long time.”

The main hall was more crowded than I had left it. Lord Aro, Caius and Marcus were still there, Philippe and Alec beside them, but there were others too now, milling around and talking.

For a moment I paused, my position on the stairs giving me a good vantage point. They were all vampires, it was easy to see that at once. The same pale, perfect skin that I had, the same ruby red eyes, a peculiar grace and strength about the way they moved. They were differences in hair colour and body shape and size, but they were old breathtakingly beautiful and made even more so by the dazzling array of clothing and jewellery they wore.

“Jane!” Alec broke away from Philippe and crossed the room towards me.

As I had been, Alec had obviously been scrubbed and brushed and combed. He was wearing a fine brown linen tunic and woollen hose, his hair brushed and tied at the back, and when I jumped down and hugged him there was no lingering scent of the pyre. We had both been made anew.

“You look beautiful,” Alec told me, fingering the embroidered hem of my sleeve.

“They took me upstairs to the tower,” I whispered. “I met the wives- Aro and Caius’ wives – and they bathed me in their tub. Alec, those rooms…it was all beautiful and so fancy, and so many pretty things. And the bath…and the soaps and oils…these _clothes_ …and even the _comb_ was inlaid with gold…”

Alec’s eyes were wide. “I know! I know he told us there were riches Janey, but I didn’t understand how it would be.” He glanced behind us. “Philippe made me bathe in the bathhouse downstairs. There were three tubs, and they were all made of marble, and the largest one was as wide as the river down beside Woden’s altar! I met some others too, Chelsea and Flavius and Adelmar. That’s them over there.”

“I met Chelsea too,” I told him. “And Corin…”

“That’s me.” Corin appeared at my side with a smile. “Alec, it’s lovely to meet you. How are you enjoying Volterra so far?”

“It’s nice,” Alec said, a little dazedly. “It’s…it’s…extraordinary.”

“You’ve only just begun to see what we have here too,” Corin said lightly. “There’s a great deal more for you to discover.”

Corin had been subtly guiding us towards Aro, and now he swooped down beside us, beaming. “Hello! How are you finding it all?”

“I think they’re enjoying themselves, my lord,” Corin said with a smile. “Just as you thought, a relaxing bath and meeting some new friends really _does_ help our guests to feel at home.”

“Indeed.” Aro’s smile was blinding. “Jane, sweetling you look precious. I’d scarcely recognise you as the little wildcat that arose after the burning! However, now that you’re more presentable, we are going to have to get to work!”

“Matilda will be here soon,” Caius interrupted. “Perhaps they should drink first?”

A look of impatience flashed across Aro’s face, but he looked at Alec and I and sighed. “No doubt you are right, Caius. I’m sure we shall get a greater effort and concentration if they aren’t distracted by thirst.”

“What do you want us to do?” I asked, a little uncertainly. “What work?” I looked at Alec, who shrugged.

Aro clicked his tongue. “Oh, you know so little! There is a long and proud history of vampirism, and we shall go into that in much greater detail in the future. There are many scholarly essays and eye witness accounts in our library that you ought to read.”

I glanced at Aro in disbelief. Read? Who did he think I was, a highborn priest or scholar? He thought that I could _read_?

“No doubt we’ll have to teach you first, but you won’t find it difficult to learn. The vampire brain is an extraordinary thing you know!” Aro beamed. “So yes…a very long history, but what concerns you right now is the history of my coven, the Volturi. I met Marcus first, and the two of us became excellent friends and companions. Caius and Athenodora joined us soon after, but seeing the wonderful love they shared left Marcus and I feeling a little lonely, even a little melancholy.” Aro sighed theatrically. “Eventually I couldn’t abide it any longer, and took my beautiful Sulpicia to be my wife. Marcus also found love with my sister, Didyme, and the six of us all got along splendidly.”

“Corin said she died,” I remembered.

Aro looked momentarily annoyed to be interrupted. “She did, although not until after we had all founded the town of Volterra to be the home of the Volturi coven. We had great plans for the future of the vampire world, which at that time was in the hands of the Romanians. Dreadful vampires, and their rule was an absolutely wretched horror! They couldn’t be allowed to continue as they were, but there were so few willing and able to stand against them.” Aro held out his hands helplessly. “What could we do? We had never sought glory or wished to wage war, but nor could we can stand by while other vampires suffered. Unfortunately, before we could succeed with our mission, my dear, sweet sister was murdered.”

“By who?” Alec gasped, clearly engrossed with the story.

“It remains a mystery to this day,” Aro said solemnly. “Such a great tragedy for us all…Marcus has never been quite the same. She was so happy, my sister, everyone flocked to her...Volterra is a sadder place since she was killed.”

I felt a rush of pity for Aro, losing a sibling. “I’m sorry,” I said.

Aro smiled gently. “Thank you. It is a great sorrow to live with, but we must do what we can. At the time her death only spurred us to action against the Romanians. At the time they were putting vampires everywhere in danger, and it was untenable. No one should have to suffer as we were suffering over the loss of my sister! The vampire world needed a strong, stable leadership that could maintain peace and safety for us all. It is a heavy burden of responsibility, but it is what we in the Volturi live for.”

“What part do you wish for us to play?” Alec asked.

“What do you want from us?” I said at the same time. “After all, we’re just…” I bit off my words. _Children_ I had almost said.

“Well, as you can imagine it’s not an easy task to maintain control over the vampire world,” Aro said smoothly. “Some vampires occasionally become headstrong and think they know better, others risk our exposure, and these things must be stopped. You’ve been told how fast and strong and unbreakable a vampire is, so how do you imagine we stop someone who is determined to defy us?”

“The guards,” I said slowly, picturing the height and breadth and muscle of Felix and Appius. On the other side of the hall, Flavius and Adelmar were of a similar type. “That’s why you have the guards.”

“They are a part of it. Our guards are chosen for their strength and they are trained and ready to fight if necessary. They are a very important part of our strategy. But there is more to it than brute strength. Over time we have discovered that sometimes, just occasionally, there are vampires created who have just a little something extra.” Aro’s eyes were trained on Alec and I as his mouth curved up in a predatory smile. “A little extra talent, a special gift…something that could be a very valuable help to us.”

Alec and I stayed quiet as Aro went on with his extraordinary tale. “I myself am a very gifted vampire,” he informed us. “I have been blessed- I need only touch someone’s hand to be given their mind, to hear every thought and word from every experience they’ve ever had.”

“That’s not true,” I said indignantly. “It can’t be!”

Aro laughed. “Indeed it is, sweetling. Didn’t I hold your hand while you were burning and find out everything about your miserable human life? About being hungry and cold…”

“Everyone knows that!”

“Do they know about your prayers and offerings and the way you begged your gods to make your life easier?? Do they know how you despised your mother for her weakness and how much you wished for that babe to die? Do they know about the snowy winter day when you hid your face and waylaid a traveller to steal from them? Do they know the way you hit him, and watched his blood spatter in the snow and you didn’t even care, as long as you had his coppers? Do they know how much you wished for all those things the villagers accused you of to be true? Do they know about the time you were playing in the river, and struck your brother on his head with a rock? Do they know how close he was to drowning by the time you pulled him out? Do they know…”

“Stop.” My voice was cold. “That’s enough.”

I was more than convinced. Aro knew things that there was no earthly way he _could_ have known. That day at the river…even Alec hadn’t known that. Between the blow to the head and the near drowning he’d been so muddled that the day had slipped from his memory and I had never told him.

“You can see how useful such a gift is,” Aro continued blithely. “No one can lie to the Volturi about their actions, when I can simply take the truth unimpeded from them.”

“What does all that have to do with us?” Alec questioned.

“We thought perhaps that if we could find more vampires with talents, it could perhaps strengthen our position in the vampire world. It was a very difficult search, but fortunately one of the gifted vampires we _did_ find was Philippe.” Aro smiled fondly. “He can look upon a human and know whether they harbour any hint of a gift that may manifest if they were turned. You can see the possibilities!”

“He saw us?” I said sceptically.

“He saw you,” Aro confirmed. “Years ago- you were the most promising humans he had ever encountered. So promising that I had to come and see you for myself. You should feel honoured, I do not usually concern myself with Philippe’s work to this extent! But it appears that Philippe was correct and you two will have much to offer.”

Alec looked deeply uncomfortable. “You mean with what we did before? When Jane caused such pain, and I…” His voice trailed away.

“But of course.” Aro looked surprised that Alec would even question it. “Such magnificent talents must be controlled and developed! My dear boy, with you and your sister as part of the Volturi our enemies will certainly think twice before they defy us. And you _do_ believe in the rule of law and a peaceful existence within the vampire world, don’t you? After all, that is what the Volturi are here for.”

“Of course,” Alec said immediately. “I understand.”

“And you, sweetling?” Aro enquired. “You would learn to harness your gifts and use them for the greater good?”

“Yes, if that’s what you want me to do.” I smiled at Alec, imagining both of us here, part of this wonderful place, and important to this vampire who had saved us.

Aro touched Alec benevolently on the shoulder. “We are in agreement then. But before we begin our work together, perhaps you’re thirsty. It’s feeding time.”

 


	15. Feeding Time

As soon as I thought of blood the venom ran. “How?” I asked Aro urgently. “You said we can’t take people from the town. Where do we get them? I’m thirsty.”

“We have people to go out and fetch them,” Aro said. “Surprising really, how easy humans are to lure to their own death. The slave trade too, provides much of what we need. I prefer to have them brought here and let everyone feast, than have too much coming and going and bodies piling up in the streets.”

I saw that the room had been filling with vampires as Alec and I had been talking to Aro. All of them gazed curiously at us. Aro clapped his hands to gain attention and the whole room fell silent.

“My friends, I would like you to introduce you to two very special new vampires. Philippe has been keeping an eye on them for some time and now they have come to join us. This is Jane and Alec.”

For a moment there was silence, as a room full of people all preternaturally beautiful stared at us with their gleaming red eyes. Then a low murmur broke out, tiny hushed whispers that I could barely hear…but I heard enough.

_Child…wrong…immortal children…_

“Stop!” Aro’s voice echoed around the chamber, loud in his rage. “I will not have this whispering and gossiping! You know that eradicating the abomination of the immortal children is what we at the Volturi have been striving to achieve. Do you _really_ think I would jeopardise that? _Do you?”_

The stone chamber fell silent as the echoes of Aro’s words faded away. He faced them down until one woman, braver than the rest, shook her head. “No my lord,” she said meekly. “Of course not.”

“Exactly!” Aro’s voice turned conciliatory. “I know that none of you mean to doubt the decisions that Caius and Marcus and I must make. And true, our new friends _are_ young. But they are not children. They are going to be very valued members of the Volturi and I will have them treated with courtesy.” His eyes flicked to Alec and I for a second, and a smile curved across his face. “I suggest you heed this warning, for you own sakes.”

I had barely listened to his words, because by then I could smell it. A crowd of people, more people than I had ever been near since I was changed, was moving towards us. I couldn’t see them, but I could smell the scent of all that blood, all the subtle variations between different people, and my throat burned.

“Steady on, wildcat,” Philippe said, appearing at my elbow. He gave me a grin and clamped a hand on Alec’s shoulder. “I know it smells good, but you need to use your table manners here. So to speak.” He chuckled at his own joke.

There were two vampires ushering in the humans. A man with a short blond beard and a small, plump woman, whose eyes were so dark red that there was only ruby glints in their depths.

“Matilda and Willamar,” Philippe murmured. “They do most of the hunting and gathering at present.”

I didn’t care who they were, or how they had brought this ragtag crowd of humans into this underground lair. All I cared about was sinking my teeth into the warm flesh and then tasting the glorious rush of blood. I whimpered, and squirmed as Philippe took hold of my upper arm.

“Settle…you’ll get yours.” Philippe winked at me. “But Aro and Marcus and Caius go first if they want it. You’ll do well to learn and remember the hierarchy here.”

The humans were afraid. I didn’t know by what trickery they had been brought to the Volturi castle, but as they stared wide eyed around the beautiful stone room, lined with red eyed vampires standing as still as statues, the fear began to take over. A young woman began to weep. Caius stepped forward and brushed a hand over her cheek, wiping away her tears and she froze into terrified silence. Caius’ hand moved up into her hair, stroking it almost tenderly, before he brutally wrapped a fist in it and yanked her head back, exposing her neck. I saw his malignant smile just before his teeth tore through the thin skin and the blood began to flow.

The screaming started then.

It was too much for me. Desperate I twisted and then wrenched my arm from Philippe’s grasp, just as one of the humans tried to run. Separated from the group he caught my eye, and without even thinking I struck. He didn’t even have time to scream before I had thrown him to the floor and was kneeling over him, my mouth clamped onto his neck where the blood would flow fastest.

I was ravenous. The blood was so good, filling me up with warmth and energy and strength, but it still felt like it wasn’t enough. Every time I drank it I felt once again like the little girl with the empty belly I had been, never having enough.

But the blood supply of a single human is not inexhaustible, and the man under my hands lasted no longer than most before his heart ceased to beat. It was only then that I looked around. Alec was nearby, sucking rhythmically at his human, and there were several other vampires on the floor doing the same. Others were standing, humans dangling helplessly from their hands as they fed in a more leisurely way. There was talking and laughter, and all the while a pile of discarded bodies grew near the centre of the room.

The boy was crouching behind the pile of bodies when I saw him. His face was stark white and his eyes were rolling in terror, but he was alive. _He was full of blood._ Now that I knew he was there, now that I was looking for it, I heard the racing heart of a person deeply afraid.

I moved swiftly and silently. I wanted to reach him before anyone else realised there was still one left. But even as I leaped lightly over the pile of corpses and went to seize him, someone snatched him right out from underneath me. I howled in frustrated rage.

“You’ll have to be quicker than that.” It was the guard, Felix, grinning at me maliciously as he held the boy with one enormous hand around his neck.

“Give him to me! I want him!”

“You might not want to tease that one,” Philippe said to Felix with a wicked grin. “In fact, for my own ends I’d ask you not to.”

“I’m not teasing,” said Felix with a sneer. “I’m just letting her know that she really needs to stand aside for her elders and betters.” He ran his teeth along the boy’s skin, and the cut immediately welled up with blood. Lazily, not taking his eyes off me, he licked it up and smacked his lips.

The fact that he didn’t even _want_ it enraged me. How dare he take it from me, just to taunt me! “Give it to me, NOW!”

“Jane, don’t!” Alec shouted. “Not here!”

It was too late. The power once again flowed out of me, and once again the room was filled with screams. Felix dropped the human and staggered away from me, his face twisted with agony, and without another thought I snatched up the human and bit him. The blood was good and I swallowed it down gratefully, not thinking of anything but the satiation of my thirst.

The screaming was replaced by silence, and as the blood slowed I looked up, suddenly tense. Around me stood ranks of vampires, all of them staring at me with fierce suspicion.

The silence was broken as Aro’s laugh pealed out through the room. “Well Philippe did warn you, Felix!” He looked across at Chelsea and smiled with delight. “I didn’t feel a thing. Apparently she doesn’t wish to cause pain to those she is loyal to.”

I rose to my feet and threw the body of the boy onto the pile, looking defiantly at the vampires around me. Aro came over and held out his hand, and I reluctantly let him hold mine.

“Sweetling, you astonish me,” he said. “It’s an extraordinary talent! We must gain control though…you hurt nearly everyone here. And while it may be just as well that they all know what you _can_ do, we simply cannot have you bringing vampires screaming to their knees every time something displeases you.”

“It was his own _fault_ ,” I muttered, glaring at Felix. “If he hadn’t tried to take what was _mine_ …”

Aro patted my hand indulgently. “I know my dear, it’s all so very vexing. But even so, we must try and control ourselves.”

Alec came over to me, scowling at both Aro and I. “Why did you do it to me?” he demanded. “And not him?” He jabbed a finger resentfully towards Aro.

“Why would I want to hurt Aro?” I asked in surprise.

“Why would you want to hurt ME?” Alec shouted furiously.

“I didn’t!” I shouted back. “I don’t know why it didn’t hurt Aro and it hurt you. I didn’t _mean_ it!”

“Well maybe I don’t mean _this_ either!” Alec’s red eyes glared at me, and then the same blank nothingness crept over me and I screamed, wordlessly, silently…

“Children!”

The world came back, all my senses flaring at the rush of returning input. I was crouched on the ground, my fingers half buried in the stone floor, Alec standing in front of me with his hands on his hips and wearing a look of horrified guilt. All around me the vampires were laughing.

“Shut up!” I bounced to my feet, but before I lost control over the boiling anger Chelsea and Corin moved towards me, standing close enough to block my view of the rest of them.

“Oh Jane, there’s no need for this,” Corin said gently, brushing a strand of hair back out of my face. “You might be the fierce little wildcat that Philippe calls you, but you don’t need to be so angry. We’re all friends here, and you’ll be happy here too.”

“You don’t want to hurt your brother,” Chelsea added practically. “It will do no one any good at all if the two of you are duelling it out in the dining room! How about you keep that special gift just for the people who deserve it, hmm?”

“Of course,” I murmured. “I didn’t mean it.” I looked past her, anxious to see Aro and make sure I had not upset him by fighting with Alec. He had done so much for us, not only rescuing us from the pyre and giving us the gift of dark immortality, but also bringing us here to be part of his world. “My lord Aro?”

“Don’t fret little one.” Aro laid a soft hand against my cheek. “You are new, and it is a heady experience to be awoken to the glory of immortality. We understand that you may be a little rash or impulsive at first.”

“Thank you my lord.” I looked across at Alec. “I’m sorry,” I said sincerely. “I don’t want to hurt you…I’m going to try and control it, I promise.”

Alec sighed and forgave me, as I knew he would. “I’m sorry too. I know you didn’t mean it and it wasn’t fair for me to do that to you.”

Aro beamed fondly at us. “Splendid. And of course you will learn to control it! Although it seems as though you managed quite nicely Alec.”

“They both need to control it, as soon as possible.” Caius strode across the room to join us, his red eyes glittering. “Either that or the girl is going to have to be kept separately. We can’t have this kind of scene during meal times every time we eat!”

“I’m sure it won’t be a problem,” Aro said soothingly. “Really Caius, I thought _you_ of all people would appreciate Jane’s gift!”

For the first time, Caius looked at me and smiled. “Oh, I appreciate it Aro! I can see all kinds of situations in which Jane is going to be a big help to the Volturi! However the random nature of it right now is not something that can be tolerated for much longer.”

“I completely agree. We’re going to begin work on that immediately,” Aro said briskly, looking around the room. “We’ll need one or two to help us with the process.”

Suddenly everyone in the room began to look very busy. The two vampires who were tossing bodies through a dark hole in the floor moved quicker, and several vampires who were near the doors simply melted away into another room.

Caius snorted. “Brave soldiers of the Volturi…”

“You can hardly blame them,” Aro said mildly.

“Perhaps you should use slaves?” Caius suggested. “They could be the lesson and the reward. It might give her some extra incentive to succeed.”

“Do you have slaves? Human slaves?” Alec asked in surprise.

“They have their uses,” Aro said carelessly. “Someone has to see to the cleaning and the laundry after all! And if Matilda and Willamar are less successful than expected in bringing in humans, it’s always nice to have some on hand.” Aro looked over the few vampires remaining in the room and sighed a little regretfully. “I suppose you’re right Caius. No one will appreciate being the subject of testing, and no one has done anything recently to make them require a chance to prove their loyalty. One of two of the humans from below, if you please.”

“My pleasure.” Caius disappeared in a blur of speed.

“If you have people here,” Alec said slowly. “Do they know what you are?”

“Presumably,” Aro answered languidly. “They are purchased from slavers and I don’t believe anyone gives them explanations, but they see and hear things. It matters not. They do as they’re bid or they bear the consequences. There have been rare occasions when one of them was particularly pleasing or appealing and they have been raised up and given the gift of immortality.” Aro laughed lightly. “Don’t trouble yourselves. That is all part of ruling and running Volterra, and that doesn’t concern you. You need only know that you will taken be taken care of here and you have nothing to worry about but learning to take control of your new talents.”


	16. Gifts of Pain and Darkness

**_ Chapter 16 – Gifts of Pain and Darkness _ **

Aro led Alec and I to the library. It was smaller than the main hall, but like everything else I had seen in Volterra it took my breath away with its magnificence. There were shelves filled with books and scrolls, desks covered with more of the same, peculiar artworks on the walls and all kind of statues and other objects on shelves and cabinets and tables. Alec and I looked around with interest.

“I assume you don’t read?” Aro said, as I opened one of the books and leafed cautiously through the pages. He sighed and shook his head as he turned the book around in front of me. “This way, sweetling. This way up, and you read from left to right…from here to here,” he clarified.

I felt stupid, but I couldn’t resist touching the parchment, covered with rows of intricate little marks. The book was bound with leather, and I wondered what it said. Alec leaned over my shoulder, examining it closely.

“You said you might teach us to read it,” Alec said timidly to Aro.

I was surprised at the note of longing in his voice, and looked quickly at Aro, waiting for his displeasure. Reading wasn’t for such as Alec and I, and I hoped that Aro wouldn’t be cross with my brother for daring to think about it. But much to my surprise Aro was smiling at him fondly.

“Of course I will,” he said sincerely. “I like to think of the Volturi as a storehouse of the world’s knowledge, and what you see here in the library is only a fraction of our collection. I would be delighted if you would like to learn and then avail yourself of all that we have. We will teach you to write too, and there is always work in the library copying over old manuscripts that are beginning to decay.”

Alec moved to one of the strange artworks on the wall. “What’s this?”

“It’s a map. An old one, from the days of the Roman Empire.” Aro went over to the picture and touched his finger to it. “This is where we are, Volterra.” He saw the confusion on my face and chuckled, but there was no malice in it. He didn’t seem to mind explaining. “This map shows an outline of the landforms, as though we were high above it and looking down. You see the coastlines, and the country borders marked in. I took you from your village, which was here…and then we ran to the ocean and sailed across it here. Then we ran through this area until we came to Volterra.”

I stared at the map, my mind reeling. All that ocean…I had thought it looked so endless when we were on the boat, but it was a tiny distance, hardly anything at all on the map! And so much land, so many kingdoms and countries… “It’s so big,” I whispered.

“Bigger than even that. The world is only half discovered sweetling, and there will be so much more than that. I have friends who have travelled well beyond the borders of my Roman map and have brought me tales of all kinds of wonders that the humans here have never even dreamed of,” Aro smiled. “Perhaps one day you will see.”

I didn’t answer. My keen nose had caught the scent of humans, and although I was not thirsty I couldn’t help but turn towards it, breathing deeply. A few moments later Caius came through the door, two humans trailing behind him. I frowned as I took them in. They were both fairly young men, bare legged and bearded and wearing short woollen tunics. I realised that only days ago I had been one of them, but compared to the strong, stone beauty of the vampires around me these humans were a completely different species, and a weak and unimpressive species at that.

“You can practise on these,” Caius told us, carelessly prodding the two towards us.

I looked uncertainly at Alec. “I don’t know what to do. It happened when I was so angry…I’m not sure how to make it happen.”

Alec frowned. “The first time I did it I just wanted everything to go away so that it didn’t hurt. Then the last time…I sort of felt it in my head? It was like I was pushing it out at you with my mind. Like it was a real thing, a sort of mist.”

“Well, try then,” Aro encouraged.

Alec furrowed his brow, and a moment later one of the humans suddenly went rigid, his eyes wide with fear.

“Very nice,” Aro murmured.

It lasted for a few minutes, and then the human suddenly shook himself and backed away, looking terrified. “Please, no.”

“Hush,” Aro said impatiently. “Alec, tell us. Did it require much effort to do? To maintain?”

Alec shook his head, looking surprised. “No. It’s as easy as moving my hands. It took focus to maintain it, but it wasn’t difficult.”

“And you?” Aro demanded of the human. “What was it like?”

“Please don’t do it again,” the man whispered, his eyes wide and fearful. “It was like nothing- I could neither see nor hear nor move.”

“Extend it to both of them,” Caius ordered.

With no apparent effort Alec soon had both of them standing frozen, eyes wide. Only their rapid breathing and occasional twitch of skin showed them as still alive.

“Imagine how useful this will be, Caius,” Aro murmured. “What better way to subdue an unruly group than to simply remove all their senses from them? How much simpler to deal with they would be!”

“I’m more interested in the girl,” Caius said, his piercing red eyes on me. “If she can control it and deliver that kind of pain at will, we’ll never have trouble getting a confession again. As a means of punishment it would be unparalleled.” He smiled coldly.

Alec released his hold over the humans and looked towards me. “Your turn. If it helps, all I did was focus on one and gather my thoughts, then pictured it as a dark mist going out of me. Perhaps it will be something similar for you.”

I tried to do what Alec said, but nothing happened. I tried again, feeling my frustration rise. I wasn’t used to Alec doing things better than me, but he clearly had a good grasp on his new abilities already, while I was floundering. It wasn’t until I started feeling anger curl in my belly that I realised that what I wanted to do was different to what Alec was doing. Hurting people like that wasn’t a mist, it wasn’t slow and horrifying…it was fast and hard and brutal, and as soon as I felt the power coalesce in my mind I hurled it like a weapon straight at the human in front of me.

His scream was so loud it could have been heard in the wives’ tower. He fell to the ground, his mouth open and his back arched, his limbs jerking and kicking in fruitless agony. For a minute I watched, and then I blinked and relaxed and as suddenly as it started it stopped.

Now that I’d done it once consciously, it felt like I’d always been able to deliver that pain. It took barely any effort to give that pain to the other human, and listening to him scream I felt a tiny shiver of satisfaction.

_I did that. I can hurt anyone I want to, I can make them scream…they will never hurt me again, or I will make them sorry._

“My dear ones, you’re doing splendidly!” Aro said happily. “Philippe will be so pleased. He was the one who found you, you know…he can see when humans have that little extra something that may manifest as a talent in a vampire. He found you two years ago and we’ve been watching all this while. I was so curious as to how you would turn out, but this is more than I dared hope for!”

“I can’t do it to both of them,” I said with a frown, trying once again to share the pain between them. “I hurt everyone before, but when I’m doing it on purpose it only ever goes to one.” One of the humans was howling, but beside him the other one only huddled into himself and shook.

Alec watched. “Perhaps it will happen with practice?” he suggested.

My tongue caught between my teeth in concentration, I tried again. This time I concentrated on what it felt like to me, and I realised that this talent was not that of a fist, hitting hard and broad. It was as sharp as steel, driving a narrow pinpoint of pain deep into their mind.

“I’m not really hurting them,” I said in surprise, turning to Aro and Caius.

“I would have to disagree,” Caius said with a sardonic smile.

“No, I’m not. Not physically…it’s hard to explain. Somehow I just make them _think_ they’re feeling all that pain. And it’s such a narrow focus that I can only do it to one at a time.” I rubbed my face a little wearily. “It was different when it was happening accidentally.”

“It’s marvellous either way,” Aro said cheerfully. “Now, perhaps you’d like to stop? I have matters that need my attention, and you two would be welcome to explore our castle. It’s very extensive, much more so than it would appear from the town. We have built quite far down.”

“Those humans,” Caius said, looking at them in distaste. “Do you want them? Otherwise I’ll take them back.”

The mental effort of what we’d been doing had left me ravenous. Alec clearly felt the same. “Yes!” we said in unison.

“Well, they’re all yours,” Aro said benevolently. “NOT in the library!” he shrieked, horrified, as we both moved towards the humans who were cowering against the wall.

“Only in the main hall,” Caius said sternly. “That is the only place within the castle you are permitted to feed. We may be vampires, but we are certainly _not_ savages. Feeding takes place in the main hall and you dispose of the remains there.”

“I’ll remember.” The humans didn’t want a thing to do with Alec and I, but there was nowhere for them to run. The first one was resigned to whatever fate we had in store for him and numbly followed Alec out of the library, but the second one was less compliant. Irritably I grabbed his arm, only to hear the bone snap and the man scream again.

“Oh sweetling, soft hands!” Aro chided gently. “Remember how strong you are!”

“But I’m going to eat him,” I pointed out reasonably, ignoring the man’s terrified whimpers.

“So you are. However, there is no need for excessive cruelty,” Aro said solemnly. Caius snorted, and Aro flashed him a brief look of annoyance. “Besides, you _must_ learn to control your strength. I have many precious antiquities and curios here in my castle, and I’ll be most upset if your carelessness leads to breakages! So remember, keep your touch light at all times.”

I led my helpless captive back into the main hall. He saw what Alec was doing to his companion, but before full understanding could dawn I pulled him down to his knees and went for his throat.

“What do we do with them?” Alec asked me when he was done. He pushed the corpse a little away from him and sat, leaning back on his hands and watching me as I finished.

Wiping my mouth I shrugged. “I don’t know. We’ll have to ask.”

“Throw them down there.”

It was Felix, strolling across the hall, who pointed to a heavy grate in the floor. I looked at him suspiciously, and he gave me a disarming smile.

“We have a furnace for burning the bodies. Aro has been experimenting with chemicals to find a less obvious way of getting rid of the bodies, but he hasn’t found anything to work yet.” He lifted the grate as though it was made of matchsticks. “Go on, get rid of them.”

I kicked the body towards the hole, listening to the long silence before I finally heard the thud of it landing. “Why are you being nice to me?” I asked suspiciously.

“Well, I’d rather be on your side than against you!” he admitted cheerfully. “Truce?”

Alec laughed and elbowed me affectionately. “I don’t think anyone wants to go against you now!” The body of the human he’d just drained slid out of sight and Felix replaced the grate.

“I’m not the only one who can do horrible things,” I said to Alec, although I was secretly pleased at the idea that I commanded respect here.

“What can you do?” Felix asked my brother curiously.

Alec hesitated. “I could show you. It doesn’t hurt.”

Felix grimaced. “Okay then….Holy hell, you two are frightening!” He shuddered as Alec released him from the hell he had caught him in and shook his head. “As I said, better to be with you than against you. Truce?”

I considered for a moment and then nodded. It made no sense to have enemies within the group. Aro had spoken of harmony, and I didn’t want to disappoint him.

“Can the other vampires do things like that?” Alec asked.

“Philippe can somehow see humans that might make good vampires, like you two. He told Aro about finding you years ago. Corin makes you happy when you’re around her. Willamar is a tracker- he has some kind of extra sense that makes him better than anyone else at tracking prey or other vampires. And Chelsea does something like Corin I think, but that’s all a bit vague.” Felix shrugged. “And Lord Aro of course, who can see everything.”

And now me and Alec, I thought silently, with our gifts of pain and darkness to add to the Volturi arsenal. We would be part of the special few, we would be important and our place here would be assured.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ve made the other vampires unaware of Chelsea’s gift of making them loyal to Aro. I think that knowing they were being manipulated wouldn’t be a good thing for group harmony, even if they couldn’t go against the supernatural bond. I liked the idea that Aro has a lot of schemes and machinations going on behind the scenes! Even Jane and Alec are one of his schemes- Marcus and Caius were aware of the children they were watching, and Philippe too of course, but no one else knew about it.   
> I’m sorry for the long gap in updates too…I know it’s really NOT like me at all! But I’m finding this one kind of hard to write. Jane’s not really a comfortable character to have living in my head while I write! So, I don’t know…does it suck? Am I finding it hard to write because I don’t like the character, because I’d rather be writing something else, or because this is just a sad pile of crap? I’d love some feedback here, if anyone has a moment!


	17. Exploring Volterra

Alec and I left Felix in the main hall and slipped silently into one of the halls leading off it to go exploring. What we had seen so far had been so impressive I couldn’t wait to see more. And there was plenty more to see.

The Volturi castle was all built of stone, much of it carved and polished. The wives’ tower and the castle above ground were surprisingly light and airy, and the small arrow slit windows offered tantalising glimpses of the city below.

“I’d like to go out and explore it,” Alec said quietly, both of us standing on tiptoe to see out. “Look at all those dwellings. So many are made of stone, and built up with windows and chimneys. This must be the wealthiest city in the world.”

“We haven’t seen any other cities,” I pointed out, but in truth I agreed with Alec. Surely there couldn’t be anywhere else more astonishing than where we were? “But you’re probably right. I’m sure Lord Aro looks only for the best.”

“I can smell the humans,” Alec commented a minute later.

“We’re not allowed to feed in the city,” I remembered. “He told me that. There are no vampires in Volterra.” I looked at Alec and giggled as he laughed.

“Philippe said most of the castle is underground,” Alec said as we came upon a staircase. “I don’t know how you even build such a thing.”

I glanced warily up at the roof, with its stone arches and solid wooden beams, but it looked sturdy enough. I hoped it wouldn’t come crashing down upon my head.

The corridor we were walking along seemed to stretch out endlessly, other corridors branching off it at regular intervals. Wall sconces lit our way, and the opulent rooms that opened off it were large and filled with luxurious furnishing. Some of them had vampires in them, talking and laughing, occasionally playing games with boards and pieces, but Alec and I didn’t stop to talk to anyone. We wanted to find our way by ourselves.

Aro had been right about the castle’s extensive underground areas. At first Alec and I felt hopelessly lost, but as we began to circle back onto familiar corridors we were able to build up a mental map of the castle layout.

There was so much to see that Alec and I almost lost track of time as we found it all. Hallways lined with art, rooms full of treasures, an enormous room with seating in a semi-circle around raised platform. We saw vampires in rooms full of games that were unfamiliar to us, and heard them playing music such as we had never heard. We saw rooms full of fabrics and sewing supplies and beautiful gowns hung on nails. We found the slave quarters, down deep, and even they were ornate. Alec showed me the bathhouse, a huge tiled room with steaming tubs, the air heavy with scent. We even found a little grotto off one of the smaller, forgotten passageways, a tiny stone cave where a waterfall splashed down one wall into a shallow, rocky pool that must have drained away somewhere unseen. The rocks all around glittered and shone like vampire skin in the sunlight.

“It’s like a goddess pool, here in Volterra,” I said softly, sitting beside the pool and trailing my fingers in the water.

“Except that the Goddess brings life, and no one here does,” Alec said quietly, taking a seat across the pool. “They… _we_ …only take it.”

“Lord Aro gave us life,” I said defensively. “Or have you forgotten that we were being burned as witches before he came?”

“As if I could forget! I’m just saying that the Gods don’t seem to have a place here,” Alec replied.

I shrugged. “Perhaps you’re right.” I couldn’t bring myself to care overmuch. Since when had the gods ever helped me? How many nights had I gone to bed hungry, praying for food? How many times had I prayed for rescue from my enemies?

And no one had ever come. No one had ever helped. Not until Aro.

“Did you notice that they’re all older?” I asked hesitantly. “All the vampires here are adults. And they’re all worried that we’re too young…too young for what? It seems like we can do anything they can do, so why do they see us as a problem?”

Alec nodded. “There aren’t any vampire children. It’s a rule, that they only turn adults, and the punishment for breaking that rule is severe.”

I frowned uneasily. “Why?”

“Philippe told me a little about it, while we were bathing,” Alec told me. “I asked him what Caius had meant about us being too young, and that the Volturi couldn’t be associated with something. I didn’t understand. He said that it was about our age, because although it was always frowned upon some vampires _did_ start turning infants and very young children. He said that they were lovely, but they were strong and always thirsty and always uncontrollable. The children and their creators were putting the whole vampire world in danger with their recklessness. Philippe said that the immortal children themselves were easily destroyed, but the covens were so protective of them that trying to remove one inevitably ended in slaughter. And Aro didn’t want that, he didn’t want the vampire population decimated, he wanted them to stay strong…so turning a child became outlawed. Philippe said that they’ve mostly tracked down all the covens that created and harboured the immortal children and destroyed them. If there are any left they don’t know about them.”

“But we’re not children like that,” I said, a little defensively. “We’re not out of control killing beasts!”

Alec smiled at me. “I know. And they will all know that too, after a time. I think they’re just nervous…the way Philippe told it the story of the immortal children and what it took to stamp it out is a very dark one. No one wants to go back to that.”

“There’s so much we don’t know,” I sighed. “All that vampire history…and if we don’t die, how _old_ are they all? And this story about the children. Why would anyone _want_ to change a child? Imagine all those horrible snivelling little brats from the village here!” I snorted with disgust.

Alec laughed, but then sobered quickly. “We might not die, but we can be destroyed. Philippe talked a lot of the battles and fights that the immortal children inspired, and about the many vampires that were lost in them. We must be careful here Jane,” he warned.

I tossed my hair back. “No one can hurt us. I can hurt them worse and you can stop them in their tracks. They all know it too…no one would even dare to try.”

We stopped talking as we heard footsteps in the tiny passageway leading to the grotto. A moment later a lanky, fair-haired vampire with a beard slid in through the narrow entrance and grinned at us in a friendly way.

“No wonder none of the others could find you,” he commented. “I doubt anyone else has been in here in decades! I’d forgotten about it myself.”

“You’re Willamar,” Alec said, eyeing him warily. “Felix said you’re a tracker.”

“That’s correct.” Willamar squatted on his heels by the entrance, looking around. “That’s why I could find you when the others couldn’t. All vampires are skilled at hunting and tracking of course, but as a tracker I have a little extra flair for it. You really did find the most out of the way place to hide though! Of all the places in Volterra you choose to hide out in a forgotten cave?”

Alec shrugged. “It’s nice here, and we’re not really hiding. We wanted to talk without others listening.”

“Why were you looking for us anyway?” I asked suspiciously.

“You’ve been gone exploring for a good while. Aro was a little concerned,” Willamar said lightly. “The lady wives were hoping you’d go to the tower Jane, something about gowns I believe? You’re welcome to visit too, Alec, they’d like to meet you.”

Only a little reluctantly I followed Willamar out of the grotto, only then noticing the blood spatters on my borrowed gown. I wondered if it would matter and if the wives would be angry with me. As a human I had worn the same woollen tunic and shift every day, but the coarse fabric had been dark brown and no one noticed or even cared about stains. The gown the Volturi ladies had given me was beautiful, but the delicate fabric showed the trail of blood clearly. Every other vampire I had seen had been immaculately dressed. I rubbed at one of the spots with my finger and then gave up in disgust.

After our extensive explorations I knew I could find the way back to the wives’ tower, but Willamar accompanied us anyway. I wasn’t sure if I liked it. Why should we be under scrutiny, when we had committed so wholeheartedly to being one part of them?

The tower was much livelier than it had been on my previous visit, with many more vampires in the first, large room. I paid them little mind though, all my attention being caught by the music that was filling the room. It was the vampire called Flavius, playing an instrument that bore some similarity to the one I had once seen the village lord play, although it was larger and the sound richer and more varied. I wondered if it was just my vampire ears that made the music speak so beautifully.

“Do you like the music?” It was Corin, standing beside me and watching the playing, who had spoken.

I nodded. “Is it a lyre?” I remembered that that was what the lord had called it.

Corin shook her head. “No, it’s called a cithara. It’s similar to a lyre though, they’re both stringed instruments. I wasn’t sure how much music you would have heard in your human life, living so far away from any town.”

I shrugged. “I heard the village lord play the lyre once.”

“Flavius plays for us often,” Corin said. “Sulpicia and Athenodora love music, and they enjoy having guests up here. You know you’re welcome any time.”

As if she’d heard her name, Sulpicia came drifting over, smiling benignly. “Jane! It’s lovely to see you again. Have you been enjoying yourself? My lord Aro has been taking care of you?”

“Yes thank you.” I smiled at her anxiously and plucked at the fabric of my gown. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to, but…”

“Oh darling, don’t worry!” Sulpicia waved her hand dismissively. “Of course there was a little mess. We would expect nothing else from a baby, and Athenodora and I have prepared for this. We have altered another gown to fit you, and have begun making plans for a full wardrobe for you. That’s why I asked Willamar to find you; I wanted to make sure you liked our ideas for you!” She tucked my arm into hers and towed me through an arched doorway into yet another room.

This was smaller than the room outside where everyone was gathered. The walls were draped with tapestries and there were seats piled with plump cushions, as well as a large table of a wood so highly polished that I could almost see my reflection in it. The table was piled high with fabrics in a rainbow of colours, and I couldn’t resist reaching out and touching them. “They’re so beautiful!”

Sulpicia gave a happy laugh. “They are! I do so love beautiful gowns and my lord Aro always makes sure I’m well supplied with the materials to make them. It gives me much pleasure to dress my ladies…those that appreciate it, that is!” She shook her head with a sigh. “My darling Chelsea isn’t the _least_ bit interested in her clothes and it’s such a pity! She’d rather wear short tunics and leggings than a gown…oh well, I must do what I can! But that’s why I wanted to consult with you about what _you_ would like.”

“I don’t know,” I said falteringly. “I’ve never had to choose.”  

“Don’t fret. Athenodora and I will make you up some gowns and some tunics and leggings and hose, and you can see what you like. Now, take off this one, and we’ll find you something fresh.” She tugged on the overdress with the blood spots on it and I obediently slid it off and then put on the clean one.

“We’ll make some for your brother too,” Sulpicia told me, as she took a brush and began to work on my hair, brushing it smooth and then weaving it into a braid. “He will need them, and he’s a little too young…too small, I should say, for the clothing we already have on hand.” She tied off the end of my hair, and then tossed the blood-spattered dress into a basket by the door. “We have humans to do the laundry,” Sulpicia explained. “It’s such a dull chore, no one wants to do it.”

“The slave humans?” I remembered the scent and taste of the humans and felt the venom run. Shaking my head I exclaimed, “ _How_ do they live here without someone feeding on them?”

“Matilda and Willamar keep us well supplied, so usually no one is so thirsty that they cannot resist. Of course, there are always exceptions,” Sulpicia said carelessly, and then giggled. “It makes Caius so _very_ cross. He takes charge of the humans here in our castle and he is always terribly vexed when anyone interferes with his work!”

Remembering the malicious glint in Caius’ eye when he spoke about what he might do with my newfound ability, I didn’t think I’d be testing what he might do to me if I vexed him. However I also wasn’t really convinced of my ability to resist the lure of humans so close, if the thirst should strike.

“Come along my dear.” Sulpicia stood by the doorway and beckoned. “You ought to introduce me to your brother, and there are many more who would like to meet you…come along and join in.”


	18. A Test

“Try harder!”

“I AM trying!” I shouted at Caius, rounding on him furiously. “If you think it’s so easy then YOU do it!”

Caius glared at me. “You could hurt multiple vampires at once when you were completely untrained! You ought to be able to do so now!”

“It doesn’t work like that!” I stamped my foot in rage, and the stone block sank slightly beneath the force. “Stop trying to tell me what to do! What I did at the start was like…like a human sneezing! I couldn’t control it, and I can’t replicate it now either! Now I have perfect control over it- who I want to target, exactly what level of intensity the agony I make them feel will be, how long I can make it last…it’s so much _better_ than it was, so much more _precise_. You just don’t _know_ that because I’m not doing it to you!”

I glared balefully at Caius. He had taken over my ‘training’ after the first days, and he was a hard taskmaster. I had to admit that under his inflexible demands for perfection I had pushed myself and reached a level of skill and control sooner than I probably otherwise would have.

I also had to admit that I hated Caius. Especially after the single occasion on which I had turned my talent on him in a temper, and he then decreed that Alec and I would not train together. He told me coldly that were I to ‘misbehave’ again then the consequences for my brother would be dire. Since then I had kept my mental weapon well away from Caius, but it couldn’t be said that I had done it with good grace.

Alec didn’t seem to mind training with Caius. Perhaps because his new ability came so easily to him that there was no real reason for contention between the two of them. Perhaps part of it was also that he could practice on vampires, who were all intrigued by his ability and didn’t object to being called upon to assist in training.

On the other hand, I was only permitted to train on human slaves. Once on a vampire who had displeased Caius in some way, which demonstrated clearly that my gift could be used to the same spectacular effect in both human and vampire brains. But mostly on humans, who had come to seem like a completely foreign species to me, with their wails and pleas and tears.

I turned back to the three humans I was practising on, selected the one that looked the most alive, and with only the slightest flexing of my mental muscle dropped him to the ground, writhing and screaming with agony.

He lost consciousness before I could really test the length I was able to hold it, and I exclaimed in irritation. No one had ever lasted long enough to push the boundaries of my ability. A vampire probably would have, since we lacked the ability to lose consciousness, but I hadn’t been allowed to attempt it. The poor unfortunate who had angered Caius apparently hadn’t been _that_ bad.

“I’m beginning to think it doesn’t matter,” Caius said, coming to stand beside me and looking critically at the three humans on the floor. One was sprawled out, unconscious, and the other two were cowering, half dead and fully terrified, against the wall. “It doesn’t seem likely that you’ll ever need to sustain it for any length of time. So far no one has been able to stand up to it.”

I folded my arms. “Perhaps these humans are just exceptionally weak. They have allowed themselves to be caught and enslaved by you, after all.”

“As though they had a choice!” Caius scoffed. “However, I think we’re done for today. I suppose you’ll want one of these?”

I ignored the slight sneer in Caius’ voice. I knew he thought I ought to be learning discipline when it came to how often I fed, but practising with my talent inevitably left my throat scorched with thirst and it seemed reasonable to reward my efforts with one of the humans I’d been working with.

I frowned at the three humans. It’s not as though they were much use for anything else once I’d done with them anyway. What I could do appeared to be an extreme form of torture, and more than one human had died as their body gave out under the strain.

“That one,” I decided, pointing to the largest one. “I’m thirsty.” I beckoned her forward and, glazed and dumb, she followed me into the main hall.

Aro was in there, seated on his throne and gazing contemplatively around. When he saw me his face lit up with his smile and he pressed his hands together.

“Jane, my sweetling, have you been working hard? Caius, how is our little one coming along?” Aro enquired cheerfully.

Coming behind me with the other two humans, Caius nodded at Aro. “Excellently. Should the situation arise, I believe it will be a most effective tool.” He held out his hand, and for the briefest moment Aro touched his palm.

“Splendid. Really, little one,” he added in my direction, “You have quite exceeded our expectations on your progress.”

I basked in the praise. “Thank you my lord.”

“You’re planning to feed on that?” Aro enquired, nodding towards the human I had grasped by her wrist. When I confirmed it, he looked at the other two humans a little ruefully. “You don’t leave them looking very appetising, I must say. However I think I’ll join you…that one, thank you Caius.”

None too gently Caius pushed the smallest human, a girl a few years older than me, towards Aro. She stumbled, and as Aro lifted her tenderly to her feet I scowled. Snivelling little brat, she should be _honoured_ that it was Lord Aro ending her miserable life. Better him than one of those apes like Felix or Appius, all brawn and no brains or talent. She should be _grateful_ that I’d spared her and she’d be allowed to nourish Aro in her final moments. But no, all she was going to do was _cry…_

Spitefully I sent a bolt of pain in her direction, and she shrieked like a person gone mad. Aro petted her absently and gave me a look of amused tolerance. “Really sweetling!”

I smirked at him as I sank my teeth through the skin of the human, and sucked greedily at the welling blood. Aro lifted the girl effortlessly onto his lap and drank her blood at the same time, and for a long moment there was nothing in the vast hall but the sound of sucking and swallowing.

Aro finished first, and sat on his throne watching me, the body of the girl lying across his lap as he idly played with her hair. When I finished I sat back on the floor, wiping my hand across my face to clean off any errant bloodstains.

“Dispose of them, please,” Aro commanded, and I immediately dragged the two corpses across to the hole in the floor, heaving the grate aside and throwing them in. I knew by now that all the bodies dropped down into a crematory and were burned away to ash.

“Come, little one,” Aro said invitingly. “Sit with me. Let’s talk awhile.”

I sat on the floor, crossing my legs and looking up at Aro

“Caius is very impressed with you,” he told me with a smile. “He says you have a formidable talent, and are developing great strength.”

I raised my eyebrows. “It might be nice if he said things like that to _me_ , instead of simply shouting at me to try harder.”

Aro gave a tinkly laugh. “Oh sweetling, you mustn’t take Caius too seriously! He can seem _so_ cross, I know, but it is simply that he is so utterly single-minded about making the Volturi as strong and powerful as possible. And _you_ my dear, delight him with what you are able to do!”

The admiration warmed me. “I want to do everything I can for you.”

“Hmm.” Aro looked at me speculatively. “Caius was considering taking you with him on his next journey.”

“Leave Volterra?” The idea simultaneously excited and terrified me.

“Temporarily,” Aro assured me. “And you wouldn’t be going far. But there has been some trouble over on the Iberian Peninsula and we feel it is our duty to investigate and step in if necessary.”

“What kind of trouble?” I ventured. Aro was not usually one to sit around and chat, but he seemed in a sociable mood and I was flattered that he appeared pleased with my company.

“Entire villages _slaughtered_ ,” Aro said peevishly. “Not even a hint of effort to clean up either. We’re not sure whether it is a rogue newborn or a mature vampire who has descended to madness, but it cannot be allowed to continue.”

I nodded. “What would you have me do?”

“Accompany them. Caius believes your gift might be useful in… _persuading_ miscreants to tell the truth. While it is simple for me to gain the truth of a situation, it is not wise for me to be away too often. Particularly if it is with Caius and we leave only Marcus in charge.” Aro frowned faintly.

My own frown matched his, as I thought of the older vampire, who despite his immortal strength seemed often little more than a wraith about the castle. His grief for his wife had never faded, and I wondered if it was like that for all vampires. Certainly Aro’s determination never to lose his wife was intense, and had led him to taking the extreme step of confining her to the tower for her own safety.

“Who would go? Caius and Alec and I…”

“Oh, I think Alec would stay here,” Aro said lightly. “He won’t be needed on this particular expedition, and I’m sure I couldn’t bear it if _both_ of my precious twins were away.”

For a second, just a brief fraction of time, I could have scratched his eyes from his face. Alec was _mine!_ _My_ brother, _my_ other half…I wouldn’t give him up for anyone, not even Aro with all the wealth and power of the Volturi!

But the moment passed, to be replaced by a horrifying feeling of sickness that I had even thought that. After all Aro had done for me…

“Of course,” I said quietly.

“Matilda and Willamar have been hearing these stories of human terror, so they will go to assist in finding the place. Willamar’s tracking skills are usually invaluable in situations like this. Felix and Appius will accompany you also, to guard and implement the justice that Caius will demand.” Aro’s keen eyes noticed the tiny twitch in my face that I tried to hide. “This doesn’t please you?”

I shook my head. “I’m not displeased with what you decide, my lord. I will just…miss my brother, that’s all.”

It wasn’t all, but it was all that I felt like going into with Aro at that point. And it was true. I _would_ miss my brother. This expedition would mark the first real separation between the two of us.

“You will not be away for long,” Aro told me consolingly. “You’re woefully ignorant about the world too, and it will be pleasant for you to see a little more of it. Not to mention what a splendid opportunity it will be to test your gift!”

Intuitively I knew it would be more than a test of my gift. It would be a test of me as a member of the Volturi, a test of the obedience and loyalty my place here demanded of me. And they would hold my brother, so there was no room for error.

“I’ll do my best for you, my lord,” I said soberly, and Aro leaned across and stroked my face.

“I don’t doubt it, sweetling. But now, you’ve stained your gown with the blood…come along with me to my lady wife’s rooms and you may bathe in her tub.”

I went with him willingly. I loved the comparative privacy of the wives’ bathing room. The large bathhouse on the lower level was grand and beautiful, but I had come to hate undressing in front of any of the other vampires. I was always so self conscious about my underdeveloped, child’s body when surrounded by so much chiselled or voluptuous vampire flesh, knowing that they would look at me with pity. Only with Alec did I feel comfortable, and the best times were when it was the two of us alone, swimming in the enormous pools as we had once swum in the river at home.

The wives were delighted to see Aro and I come through the door, and Sulpicia immediately hustled me towards the tub.

“I have a new dress for you,” she told me sweetly. “I’ve finished embroidering it just now…how lovely that you’ve come up in need of it and can wear it right away!”

Alec was in the rooms too, listening to Claudia play the cithara, alongside Caius and Athenodora, but he excused himself and came with me into the bathroom.

“Caius says that you’re going with him on some expedition,” Alec said, his tone deliberately neutral.

“Yes. There’s a vampire breaking all the rules, and they want to go and put a stop to it. Caius thinks that perhaps I can help. But…” I bit off my words at Alec’s warning headshake, realising immediately that Aro and Caius would be hearing everything next door. “I’ll miss you,” I finished softly.

“It will be good to test your abilities in that situation,” Alec mused. “And you can see some more of the world…you’ll have to show me on the map where you go.”

I scrubbed my hands, ridding myself of the blood beneath my fingernails, and didn’t answer. Alec was right that it would be a good chance to test my abilities, and the idea of seeing something more of the world was thrilling. But I didn’t like the idea that Alec would be left behind, a hostage to my own success, and that suddenly the place here that I’d felt was assured suddenly seemed to rest so precariously on the outcome of a test I had no say in.


	19. Beyond Volterra

I fastened the clasp of the midnight blue cloak I was wearing, admiring the way it was fashioned so cleverly to look like two birds. The cloak too was new. Athenodora had lent it to me, since I had none of my own. It hung to my ankles rather than my knees, as it would on Athenodora, but it was luxuriously thick and soft, and the cost of the dye alone would have been astronomical.

For a brief moment I had a flash of memory, of icy cold and biting hunger and a bed of straw and animal skins that was never warm enough. This cloak would have been so welcome back then. But I shook my head. It was me, the pathetic little human girl in those memories, but each day they were fuzzier and faded and gladly I let them go. So much better to be what I was now. I didn’t want to remember the hunger and the cold and the powerlessness.

But there had been a dog…and the day that I realised I didn’t remember his name I had felt a grief so strong it had shocked me.

I strode from my room and into the main hall, finding the other members of the party already waiting. Caius, Matilda and Willamar were chatting casually with Aro and Marcus, and Felix and Appius were busily pounding each other in the head and laughing. They all wore grey cloaks, fastened with a clasp stamped with the Volturi crest. I felt conspicuous in my blue – just another thing that separated me from the others and made me wonder if I really belonged and was part of things here.

Alec appeared silently from the shadows. “I just wanted to say good luck,” he murmured to me.

“I wish you were coming with us.”

Alec looked wistful. “I also. Not just because I don’t like it when we’re apart, but because you’re going to see so many new things. Lord Aro told me that you’re going all the way to the Iberian Peninsula in the west.”

I nodded. “He say that the humans who have conquered it call it Al-Andalus, and they worship neither the Christian god or the old gods of ours. And some of them have skin in all shades of brown.”

Alec sighed. “I’d love to see it all! We’re learning so much here, but…”

“One day,” I said, cutting in before he could continue his complaints and maybe lapse into criticism. “We’ll see it all one day, Lord Aro promises. I’ll tell you about it this time. And we won’t be gone too long- Willamar will find the vampire causing trouble and he will be eliminated. They’re going to purchase more slaves on the way home, but that will be as close by as possible – no one wants to have to wait for a slow bunch of humans.”

Alec wrinkled his nose. “Shepherding human slaves doesn’t sound fun.”

“No.” I wasn’t excited about that part of the trip. The idea of using my gift for a purpose was intriguing, but the rest of it made me resentful. I didn’t want to shuffle a herd of terrified humans along, and I didn’t want the inevitable scorn from Caius when I drank from them regularly.

“Come along!” Caius called imperiously. “Jane, we’re waiting.”

Alec and I briefly clasped hands in farewell, and then I joined the group gathered around Caius. Aro made an extravagant farewell, and then we moved across the hall and made our way down the familiar tunnel to the exit in the church.

The little building was complete, the stones standing straight and firm in the early evening light. I took a deep breath, the warm air rich with enticing and fascinating smells. I remembered coming this way as a brand new vampire and how overwhelming and chaotic everything had felt, so different to the way I felt now.

I sighed, and realised that the others were already some distance away. Pushing aside the memories I raced lightly after them.

We never got tired, but I slowed our run often as something caught my eye. There was just so much that I had never seen! Rivers that made my river of home look like nothing more than a tiny stream; hills so high I couldn’t see the top of them for the clouds. The plants and grasses and trees were all different. There were villages and even towns that we passed around or sped through, the air smelling tantalisingly of all the humans that lived there.

Caius was curt in his impatience with me, but none of the others backed him. Felix and Appius were too scared of me and what I might do to them, and Matilda and Willamar were merely amused by my inexperience. Out here, away from the hierarchy and intrigues of Volterra, they were more relaxed and it seemed even as though they might like me as they made sure to point out oddities and marvels to me.

I wasn’t sure what I thought about Matilda and Willamar. They were kind to me, but it wasn’t really anything to do with me that made me so uneasy around them. It was the way they were with each other, the gentle touches, the way their eyes met and the way they seemed to move instinctively in time with each other. The way each of them seemed to be the centre of the other’s world and the way that, as an outsider, this made me feel.

In some ways it was like Alec and I, but in a different dimension. I had learned about vampire mate bonds and had thought I understood, but what I saw between Matilda and Willamar was nothing like the extravagantly formal relationship between Lord Aro and his lady Sulpicia. This was…this was intimacy. This was love.

I didn’t want it for myself, not really. And yet, as we fed on the outskirts of the city we had been heading towards, I couldn’t stop myself from covertly watching them. They had a human between them and they took their time draining it, kissing away the odd splatters and murmuring to each other in voices too low for anyone else to hear.

I didn’t want it for myself…but something about this fact disturbed me. Everyone _else_ in Volterra seemed to want that. Even those who didn’t have a permanent mate were always playing at it, flirting and laughing and kissing and other things that I didn’t even want to _think_ about, let alone do.

I sucked at the hole I had torn in my human’s throat, savouring the last drops. He was an old man, and I had done nothing more than hasten his looming death.

Perhaps that was why I didn’t care for having a mate, I mused. Maybe it was my age. Maybe it was something that only happened when you were older, and I was too young. _Too young._ My thoughts soured as the words echoed in my mind.

 _Too young._ That’s what everyone had said, when Lord Aro had brought us to Volterra. Too young to be vampires, too young to be Volturi… I had ignored them and scorned the idea that I was too young for anything, but now I was sitting here watching Willamar laying delicate kisses along Matilda’s cheeks until he found her mouth and wondering if maybe they were not entirely wrong.

 _It_ is _something I’ll never have_ , I realised numbly. _I’m always going to be thirteen, and always on the border of something more, but never moving forward. It will always just be Alec and I, and we’ll never quite belong…_

“Enough,” Caius snarled, and it took me a second to realise he wasn’t talking to me, but scowling at Willamar and Matilda. “We must find this vampire we’ve come in search of. You say you’re a tracker Willamar, well here’s another chance to prove yourself.”

Felix and Appius stiffened a little at Caius’ obviously disagreeable mood, and began digging a little faster at the hole they were working on for the bodies. I grabbed the old man by the ankle and tossed him at the hole, making a face as I heard his bones crack. _Soft hands_ , I reminded myself. _Lord Aro always says it, soft hands._

“Keep your hood low over you face and don’t speak,” Caius warned me as the five of us entered the city. “The vampire we seek has been committing outrageous acts of slaughter, and we would rather not provoke him or the populace into anything impetuous. Discretion is necessary at this time, Jane.”

I was irritated that I’d been singled out, but the feeling didn’t last. Once again I began lagging behind, fascinated by the exotic people still moving through the streets and some of the magnificent buildings that I began to glimpse.

“Jane, come on.” Matilda took my hand and smiled at me mischievously. “We mustn’t vex Caius!” She pulled me along, and I sped up until I was keeping pace.

“There are two vampires in this city,” Willamar said at last, drawing to a stop in the shadows. “There’s one in the dwelling on the corner. Her tracks are everywhere, and I think she has been here for some time and is not the one we’re seeking. But she may know something of the other.”

“I’m sure Jane can persuade her to share what she knows,” Caius said with a glacial smile.

The vampire woman was waiting for us when we entered the tiny dwelling, having heard and scented our approach. It was a dim, filthy hovel and the vampire I faced was nothing like the Volturi vampires I had become used to. She was dressed in filthy clothes, and her hair was in the same tangled, matted locks that mine had been as a human.

“What do you want?” she demanded suspiciously, glaring at each of us in turn.

“We’re from the Volturi…” Caius began.

“I know where you’re from. I know what you are.” The vampire bared her teeth. “What is it you want with me? I’ve done nothing.”

“Really?” Caius inquired. “You’ve done nothing?”

“I told you I hadn’t!”

“I’m not sure I believe you…Jane?”

Caius gave me a sweet smile, and I unhesitatingly sent a bolt of agony towards the vampire. She fell to the ground, writhing in excruciating pain, her mouth open in a silent scream. I held it for a moment, and then just as abruptly as she’d first felt it, it was gone.

“You really have done nothing?” Caius pressed. “There is someone in this area breaking the rules…if not you then who?”

“It’s not me! I swear it!”

“Then who?” Caius appeared to be enjoying himself.

“I don’t know!” The vampire was still crouched on the floor, all hostility towards us gone in the face of her fear.

At a nod from Caius, I did it again. I made her hurt until she screamed, until she didn’t know anything but pain, and then I held it for an extra second before I let it go.

“Please, please, stop! I don’t know what you’re doing…but please, don’t! I don’t know anything! I’ve smelled the other, they came to the city only recently, but I never met them. I don’t know anything else I can tell you!”

“Should we believe you? We have ways of making you tell the truth, as you have clearly felt tonight,” Caius said in his poisonous voice.

“No! I swear to you that I’m telling you all that I know! The other, I’ve smelled him on the other side of the river, and up near the palace, but I avoid those places! Please, however you’re doing that, you don’t need to…I’m not hiding anything!” She was practically sobbing.

“She’s telling the truth,” Caius said briefly, sounding almost put out that he couldn’t order the torment to continue. “It’s not her- we must find the other.” He turned his eyes back to the vampire woman. “The Volturi thanks you for your assistance. You need have no fear of us as long as you maintain secrecy and follow the rules. We ask only for loyalty to our cause.”

“Of course my lord, thank you,” the vampire babbled. All her previous belligerence and hostility had vanished.

“Very well,” Caius said. “Willamar, we’ll be following you.”

Willamar led us almost unhesitatingly through the city, tracing the scent of the unknown vampire. I was impressed, having not seen a tracker in action before. Willamar’s ability to follow the faintest, most compromised scent was amazing.

“He’s in there,” he said at last, pausing outside a large, elaborate building of pale stone. “That’s a palace they use for prayer, and I think he’s…”

“Brought down his vampire wrath on them,” Caius said grimly.

The wind picked up then, and I smelled the delicious scent of the blood, so much of it from so many people, mingling together as it spilled… I couldn’t stop my snarl as I darted towards the front doors.

“Oh, _newborns_ ,” Felix snorted in disgust, but I didn’t stop to argue.

I flew up the steps and into the hall, but then I could have screamed in rage because they were all already dead. Human bodies tossed carelessly across the floor or piled haphazardly, arms and legs and heads bent at grotesque angles. And the blood…I was dazzled by the sight of so much of it, dripping from the bodies and sliding across the floor, pooling in the dips and trickling away beneath the stones. This vampire hadn’t even _drained_ them, he’d just bitten them and taken a swallow and moved on to the next one. And now all that blood was _wasted_ , contaminated on the floor and beginning to cool and congeal.

“He wasted it all!” I said furiously to Caius as the others joined me in the hall. “Look at that! All that blood, and I don’t get _any_ of it!”

“You’ll have your reward for you work once it is done,” Caius told me briskly. “Now, where is the vampire responsible for this?”


	20. Justice

“I believe that would be me.”

A small, round man with gleaming red eyes and a bushy red beard appeared from behind a pillar. He wore only a breechclout and his body looked red with the blood that covered it. “And who might you be?”

“We are from the Volturi,” Caius proclaimed. “We have come to pass sentence and deal out justice for your actions, which go against all of our laws. These outrageously obvious bloody massacres…are you seeking discovery?”

The blood soaked vampire actually yawned. “Oh yes, he told me about you. The one who made me. I assumed he was exaggerating…have you really come here to scold me?”

“We are here to do more than scold you,” Caius said softly. “So much more.”

“Do your worst,” the vampire said with a shrug. “You are nothing to me, holed up in your tower and calling yourselves lords. I am my own master and…”

He said no more. I was incensed by his lack of respect and without waiting for Caius I had doled out my own form of judgement, the simple beauty of pure pain. He screamed, like they all did, a sound that echoed through the palace we were in, and his eyes went wide with horror.

“Thank you Jane, that’s enough now,” Caius said politely, and after an infinitesimal pause I let my power drop.

“You will see that we do _not_ consider that you are your own master,” Caius said, his voice as sharp as a whip. “Even for vampires, there are rules and we will _not_ have any of our kind behaving as you have been. You risk exposing us all and that is intolerable.” He glanced across at me and gave me a slight nod before he turned back to the vampire and demanded to know who had created him and let him loose.

I hurt him again. Only briefly, but the pain was white hot and when I released my grasp on his mind he freely told us his story.

His name was Hamid, and his creator had been a vampire named Beles. Beles had been hoping for a companion when he changed him, but had got a lot more than he bargained for. Hamid had awoken, slaughtered a village, listened to Beles instruct him in the rudiments of vampirism, and then torn him apart.

“I had no desire to be anyone’s toy,” he said flatly. “I’ll bend my knee to no one, and that includes you Volturi.”

“I don’t suppose you will bend your knee,” Caius said musingly. “But you could be made to. Felix? Appius?”

They struck like lightning. Hamid screamed, almost as loudly as he had when I hurt him, and when Felix and Appius stepped back and I could see him again, I gasped. They had torn his legs right off, each of them holding a limb triumphantly aloft.

Hamid was sprawled across the bloody floor and his eyes were bulging out of his head with shock.

“The Volturi does not take kindly to defiance,” Caius said coldly. “Unfortunately for you, we also don’t give second chances.”

Felix and Appius struck again, and Hamid’s shriek was cut short as his head was forcibly detached from his neck. It rolled across the floor towards me and I stepped hastily away from it.

Caius laughed mockingly. “It can’t hurt you.”

“Lord Aro said that we can be put back together.”

Caius waved a hand dismissively. “Of course it can be done. Heads _are_ difficult though. But that will be no issue here, because we of the Volturi believe in cleaning up after ourselves and the remains will be destroyed.”

“My lord?” Felix lifted the head by the hair. “Shall we burn the human remains too?”

Caius looked distastefully at the mess of bodies. “In this stone building they won’t burn, and we’ve spent enough time here as it is. Get rid of him and then we can leave.”

Felix grinned, and he and Appius laughed as they struck a flint and watched the spark catch on Hamid’s hair. The flames burst into life, and a thick, purple tinged smoke almost obscured my view of the flaming body of the vampire.

It didn’t matter. The flame, the smoke…it all brought back the memory of my human death and I was frozen by a kind of terror that went bone deep.

“Jane? Jane…” It was Matilda, standing between Caius and I so that he could not see my face, bending close and speaking quietly. “Little one, are you upset? You know that we at the Volturi deal out justice for our own kind. This vampire…”

“It’s not that,” I interrupted with a gasp. “I don’t care…he deserved it. But the fire…they burned me…”

Understanding dawned in Matilda’s eyes. “Your human death?”

I nodded, and she gave me a quick and slightly awkward embrace. “I see. Caius?” She raised her voice a little and turned towards him. “Jane and I are thirsty. We’ll meet you by the east gate before dawn.”

Without waiting for an answer Matilda turned and flew from the palace, my hand in hers.

“Does Caius know that that is how you died?” she asked, as we slowed to a walk.

I shrugged. Outside the palace, with a star-studded sky arching overhead and the sweet smell of human blood drifting on the breeze, I was able to take a hole of myself. “He knows. I doubt he cares.”

I _knew_ Caius didn’t care, and for a moment I was enraged with myself for letting him see that I still cared, very much.

“Willamar changed me,” Matilda said absently, her walk turning into a prowl as she scented someone promising. “He was a lord when he was changed, and disappeared for years before he returned. Then strange things began happening, disappearances and deaths, and people who went to his castle and never returned. Such terror!” She laughed lightly. “They thought he could be appeased by a virgin sacrifice.”

“That was you? The sacrifice?” I breathed, moving silently in her shadow. I had heard very few tales of how people came to be changed, and I was fascinated.

“Yes. All dressed up and bedecked with ribbons and flowers and laid out as a gift to his evil appetites.” Matilda laughed merrily. “Fools! Indeed, he took their sacrifice, but he took a fancy to me at the same time and gave me the dark gift.”

“Did you go to the village and kill them all?” I asked. “That’s what I would have done…they’d as good as killed you themselves!”

Matilda looked at me speculatively for a moment, turning away from her hunt. “I killed some of them,” she said quietly. “I killed those responsible, but I let the innocent live…I didn’t kill the children. Children are different.”

I didn’t answer her. A particularly delicious scent had drifted past me and my attention had returned to hunting. Matilda said nothing more, but slipped silently beside me as we entered a dwelling, listening closely to the two heartbeats we could hear within.

Sated, we left for the east gate and were waiting there when the men returned. Willamar greeted Matilda with a kiss, and I tried to see him as the human lord he had once been. Once again I had the uneasy feeling that there was something that I was missing, as I thought about how he had changed her because he had wanted to be with her, and that they’d stayed together ever since. Still thinking, I turned my face towards Volterra and began to run.

We stopped at a slave market along the way home. It was daylight when the market was held, dangerously bright, and I made sure to keep my face well shadowed with my hood. Caius negotiated with the slavers and I saw the look of fear on their faces at the inescapable air of menace he exuded.

It was a heady experience for me, to be surrounded by so many humans penned into such a small space. The scent of blood and fear, the sound of thudding heartbeats made hasty with apprehension and misery, it all swirled around me hypnotically. Even though I had fed earlier, I felt the venom begin to run.

“Be careful little girl.” Felix bent low and peered under my hood. “I can see that you’re getting excited, but you’d best behave yourself.”

“But it smells so good!” I was breathing in deeply and couldn’t even be bothered to react to his patronising tone. “Imagine the havoc we could wreak here!”

Felix laughed wickedly. “I know...but patience Jane, patience! Cauis will buy extra for your outrageous appetite. You might be the smallest vampire in Volterra but you damn sure eat a lot!”

I couldn’t help laughing, and I had to pull my sleeves more securely down over my hands. “I can wait then, but I hope it doesn’t take too long.”

“Caius isn’t one to waste time,” Felix assured me.

He was right. Whether because he offered a fair deal or because they were too frightened of him to attempt to haggle, Caius’ negotiations were over almost as soon as they had begun, and he was then in possession of a large number of slaves, all chained or roped together.

The slavers used whips to move their slaves around, and were doubtful when Caius dismissed it as unnecessary. But he was right that whips and chains were unnecessary, not when there were vampires who never slept and had all the speed and strength in the world at their fingertips. Whips had nothing on the pain I was able to inflict without a word, and after one or two demonstrations the wretched humans simply followed us without a hint of resistance.

I was glad to get back to Volterra by the time we reached the church. Glad to be back home, as the dim tunnel opened to the splendour of the main hall. Our pace had been so much slower once we’d taken the human captives, and I had been longing to get back to the beauty and grace of Volterra. I didn’t like being out there with the humans, with their endless tears and smells and screaming, and the unsettling memories of my own human life that they raised in me.

Once we reached the castle I left Caius organising the slaves and ran in search of Alec, finding him just around the first corner where he was already coming to greet me. A wide smile split his face, and for a moment the two of us grasped hands tightly and beamed at each other.

“Janey! I’m so glad you’re back…I missed you!”

“Oh, me too! I wish you had been able to come with us and see all those marvels! It’s not just here in Volterra you know, these castles and palaces that humans have built are in other places too and it’s all so extraordinary. But the slaves they bought come from all kinds of places too, they’re all colours and look so different and you can see them…”

“Good- I’m so thirsty!” Alec made a face. “We knew you would be back soon, so we’ve been waiting. Come along to the hall with me. Tell me about the vampire you found?” he added as we walked towards the main hall.

“He’d just been killing,” I told him. “Not for drinking, just for…well, fun I suppose. We found him in a palace of prayer for their foreign gods, and the floor was a lake of blood because he didn’t even _drink_ them. He just took a swallow and then _wasted_ the rest.” The memory of all the spilled blood made my throat burn.

“What did they do to him?” Alec wanted to know.

“They destroyed him. He wasn’t willing to accept Volturi laws, and he wasn’t the least bit remorseful. Felix and Appius did it…I suppose that was why they came along really,” I said, realising that it must have been why the big, brawny vampires had accompanied us. “Tore him apart and then set fire to him so he couldn’t come back.”

“Oh Janey…was that so hard to watch?”

I pulled away from the look of concern on his face, scowling in frustration. “Of course it wasn’t! I’m fine! I don’t care about him at all! Lord Aro knows what’s best for the Volturi, and it’s only to be expected that if you break the rules you will be punished. It was only that…only that I didn’t like the fire.” My voice faltered.

Alec laid an arm across my shoulder and squeezed lightly. “I wouldn’t have liked it either,” he admitted. “I don’t like fire…even in the bathhouse or the tower of the lady wives, I don’t like when they have a fire.”

I looked at him, surprised that he was so freely admitting to this weakness that matched my own. If there was one thing I knew about life at Volterra it was that it did not do to show weakness if you could possibly help it.

“Maybe we’ll talk about it later,” he said, as we began to hear the noise of voices and the beat of many human hearts coming from the main hall. “Right now I’m thirsty, and I believe you’ve brought us back a feast.” His eyes sparkled, and the two of us laughed as we raced each other back to the main hall.


	21. A Heinous Crime

Aro sought me out early the next day. Chelsea had invited me to play a new game, and she and I were seated opposite each other on one of the wide, stone ledges below one of the arrow-slit windows. She had instructed me on how to lay down and pick up the stones on the board, and how to keep score, and I was winning convincingly when we heard Aro’s light footfalls.

“Chelsea, my dearest! I see you’re helping our sweet little one to settle back in,” he called cheerfully. “Jane, you’re happy to be back?”

“Yes my lord,” I answered.

“Quite happy and content to be here with us, I should think,” Chelsea grinned. “You wanted to speak with her?”

Aro nodded, and Chelsea jumped nimbly from the ledge. “Jane, we’ll play some more later.”

Aro took her place, sitting himself down and managing to look as elegant as he always did. He and Chelsea touched hands briefly, and then as she vanished down the hall he looked at me fondly.

“So here you are, back with us sweetling.”

“You doubted I would come back?” I was surprised to feel so deeply hurt at the idea that he harboured doubts about my loyalty. “My lord…”

“Don’t fret, little one,” Aro said gently. “I know that your heart is here. Chelsea assures me your loyalty is unparalleled, and that makes me very happy.”

I couldn’t help smiling in pleasure at his approval. “Is that what Chelsea can do? See how loyal someone is?”

Aro’s eyes glittered. “She can do that, yes.”

“I want to be here,” I told him, half shyly. “I don’t want you to ever doubt my loyalty to you.

“Caius brought me very pleasing reports of you from your journey.” Aro eyed me speculatively. “He said your help was invaluable and you behaved as nothing less than a seasoned Volturi guard in spite of your inexperience.”

“Thank you my lord.”

Aro held out his hand and I laid mine in it, noticing once again how small my hand was against his. Aro frowned slightly as he took in the memories of the time I was away through the touch of my skin.

“My lord,” I said timidly, as the silence lengthened. “Have I displeased you?”

“Of course you have not displeased me little one,” Aro said, releasing my hand and eyeing me in contemplation. “But I confess you surprise me…you are considering the vampire mating bond? You feel as though it cannot happen for you, and that that is a loss in your existence?”

“Ugh, no!” I shook my head, my lip curling in distaste. “It’s not something I want at all! It’s just that…that I’m so young…and I wonder…” My voice trailed away.

“So young? You feel too young? Oh no sweetling, no…you are so perfect, just as you are.” Aro’s voice was low and strong. “It certainly is as you say- you are too young for that mating call and the bond that ensues. It will not be for you. But my dear one, that is a _gift_. You will _always_ be strong and true to yourself…you will never be distracted or lose focus, or suffer the devastating heartbreak of loss. You can be ruthless, my little one, because there will never be that love for others to use against you. With your gifts and your heart you are an _exquisite_ creation, my most perfect progeny of all.”

I was almost overwhelmed by Aro’s words and the fervent light of belief in his eyes. I knew then that while I would never have the compelling feeling of a mate bond, I would always have this fierce and powerful love and admiration for this vampire who had created me, who had raised me up from the weak and pathetic human thing I had been and made me in his image. My strongest emotions would always be for my brother, and now my lord Aro.

For the first time I did not wait for a request but reached out and touched Aro of my own volition, offering him the gift of my thoughts. He took my hand with a smile, which widened as he took them in.

“Ah my little one, you are indeed a treasure! Such a valuable addition to our little family here!” Aro patted my hand fondly. “You have proved your loyalty with Caius and shown how useful your particular skills can be to us. And now, already, you have another chance to prove yourself.” He frowned.

“What would you have me do?”

“We have had word of a grievous crime,” Aro’s voice was laced with anger. “After all we have done to stamp it out and to crush those who would dare to defy our rules! And yet again we are here, forced to deal harshly with one of our own who has chosen to break one of our most sacred rules.”

“Not an immortal child?” Surely no one would have dared!

Aro looked almost sorrowful. “That is what we have heard, although I can scarcely believe it. After all the dangers and horrors that have been wrought as a result of these immortal children, it is tragic that some vampires still insist on creating them! It breaks my heart to have to enforce such harsh justice, but it is the only answer.”

“What are you going to do?”

“We must go to the kingdoms of the Slavs and ascertain the truth of the matter. If there is an immortal child, it will be found and destroyed. The one responsible for creating it will be punished, as will any of those who have assisted her, or even had knowledge of the outrage that they chose not to share with us.” Aro was watching me carefully.

“You know I want to help. Do you know who has done this thing?” I asked.

Aro sighed heavily. “And old friend, Sasha. We have watched her, because in her time she has created her own coven with three daughters. Creating new vampires is permitted of course, but three of them in a relatively short time _did_ draw our attention. It would _never_ do for vampires to create new friends indiscriminately! Sasha seemed content with her Tanya and Irina and Kate though, and we of the Volturi of course wish nothing more for our vampire friends than happiness and contentment in their lives.”

“They are fools to disobey the rules and create these children,” I said, shaking my head.

Aro smiled at me. “That is indeed the case, little one. But a fool can be very, very dangerous if given the opportunity. The Volturi is tasked with maintaining order, and it is up to us to stop them.”

“Can I come with you? Alec too?” I asked eagerly.

“Indeed sweetling, I believe you and your brother will be very important to the success of this mission! Vampires do get _so_ attached to their child creations, you see…of course, on the surface the little poppets are _quite_ adorable. But they’re absolutely _uncontrollable_ , and we cannot have that kind of creature out in the world! However stopping them has, in the past, proved…difficult. I think that the talents you and your brother possess are going to make a great deal of difference in how quickly and efficiently we are able to deal with the situation.”

I felt a warm glow of pride. “I hope we can help. Who else will go?”

“Caius and I, naturally. Willamar is the best tracker we have at present and will find our way. We may have need of fighters, so it will be a much larger party than your trip with Caius.” Aro sighed. “We will be leaving at sundown, so please be prepared.”

It was a simple matter to prepare. I spent part of the day in the tower with the lady wives, being bathed and petted. Sulpicia had made me a new tunic, shorter than the gowns and easier to run in, as well as a silk undertunic dyed a beautiful yellow gold colour.

“Dyed with saffron,” she told me, pleased with my gratitude. “I am also having a gown made for you that will be dyed the same colour. I have thought perhaps we shall arrange a ball once you all return, and you can wear it then. We haven’t had a proper party in _such_ a long time. I thought the saffron colour would look lovely with your hair.”

“Of course, it would look better with her hair if we had any slaves left that were _skilled_ enough to _do_ her hair!” Athenodora sniffed haughtily, snatching a comb from the dresser and beginning to untangle my freshly washed hair.

“Athenodora, I’ve _told_ you I’m sorry!” Sulpicia exclaimed in exasperation. “How was I to _know_ that she was yours? I requested something brought up because I was thirsty, and there she was…I didn’t realise that I was feeding on your favourite hairdresser!”

“Sorry doesn’t bring her back!” Athenodora was braiding my hair so tightly I could feel my eyes being pulled back at the corners. “ _Sorry_ isn’t doing my hair properly! Just _look_ at it!”

“Well I’m sure I don’t know what I can do about it now!” Sulpicia said, throwing her hands up in despair. “It’s not as though it’s the first time this has happened either though. Might I remind you of a certain slave seamstress who was able to do the most _beautiful_ embroidery until _someone_ decided she needed a midday snack…”

“Oooh, and you said you’d forgiven me!”

As Athenodora fastened the end of my braid I got to my feet and sidled silently out of sight, leaving the increasingly shrill and tearful voices behind. This wasn’t an argument I really wanted to get involved in. The wives were usually best friends, closer than sisters, but occasionally things between them exploded and decades of resentments and grievances would come out. Sulpicia accidentally feeding on Athenodora’s favourite slave was certainly reason enough for a quarrel!

I found Alec, and the two of us went to the great hall to await the time of departure. We sat off to the side, in the shadow of the three elaborate thrones, playing a game of knucklebones. I had a vague idea that this was something we had played in our human life, but not with the variation in stone size and the elaborate catch and drops we were capable of as vampires.

“They all wear grey cloaks.” I said softly, as a crowd began to gather.

“Aro and Marcus and Caius don’t,” Alec pointed out. “Theirs are black.”

“Everyone else does. And the shade of grey varies. Look…Felix and Appius are lighter than Willamar and Matilda, and Chelsea’s is almost black.” I ran my eyes across the other members of the Volturi in the hall, mentally arranging them in order from lightest to darkest. “Maybe it’s how much Aro likes them?” I said doubtfully, my stomach twisting with jealousy.

“I think it’s maybe in order of how important they are, or how special their talents are,” Alec said thoughtfully. “Felix is very strong, but all vampires are strong…and if you wanted a particularly strong vampire it would be a simple matter to find a suitable human. But Philippe, his cloak was very dark grey, wasn’t it? And finding another vampire like him – especially without Philippe himself to find them! – would be incredibly unlikely.”

“What about us though?” I fretted. “Why don’t we have cloaks? Aro knows how loyal we are, and no one can deny our talents!”

Alec smiled and flipped a knucklebone at me, which I caught without even looking at it. “You’re so impatient sometimes Janey,” he said affectionately. “I’m sure that they consider us one of them. Lord Aro was adamant that we needed to accompany them on this trip! He knows how valuable our skills could be. But we’ve hardly been here any time at all really, not compared to the lifespans of the lords. Just be patient.”

I knew he was right, but I still found it difficult. I had proven myself on my last trip away with Caius…hadn’t I? But Alec had not left Volterra yet, I reminded myself, perhaps they wanted to be sure that we would both be loyal. I shook my head a little. As if anyone could spend time surrounded by the wonders of Volterra and want to leave!

____________________________________________

I ran alongside Alec as the large group of Volturi made its way across the country. His eyes were bright with excitement, and he and I continually pointed out new and interesting things to each other. Nothing we saw rivalled Volterra.

It was the first time we had spent time as part of a Volturi group really and at first it was a little unsettling to see so clearly how the emotions of the others towards Alec and I varied. At Volterra it was easy to avoid other vampires, and there were so many distractions that I had never paid much attention to what the others thought of me. What did it matter what all these lesser vampires thought of me, when lord Aro had made me his pet?

But I became aware, as we moved through fields and forests, passed lakes and mountains and crossed over rivers that there was a gap between everyone else and Alec and I, a gap that I thought might never be breached. I knew that many of them wanted to look down on us for our youth and vampire babyhood, but our powers frightened them. They kept themselves at a distance, wary of what we might do. At first it made me angry, that they were judging me without knowing me, but as I looked at them and felt the power that came with being feared, my heart hardened. It was right that they should be afraid- I was strong and I would be as ruthless as I needed to be to achieve the power I wanted.


	22. The Sisters

We did not go directly to the place where we believed the immortal child to be. Lord Aro wished to interrogate the daughters of the depraved vampire who had created the child. He believed that they may have been involved, and Caius had decided that it would be better if we came upon them without warning.

Willamar tracked them to a cave in a mountain pass, nearly buried in snow. There were several small villages within tracking distance, but it didn’t seem like a place I should like to linger.

The sisters came out at Caius’ imperious shout. Three vampire women, tall and blonde and beautiful, clad in furs and glittering in the sunlight stood and faced Aro and Caius squarely.

“Aro, Caius.” One of them nodded to the lords calmly. “It has been a long time.”

“Indeed it has, Tanya. But how are you? And your sisters…Kate? Irina? I hope you are all well,” Aro said solicitously.

“Quite well, thank you.” Tanya sounded courteous, but I could detect the hint of unease behind her words. “You have apparently come quite a way…is there something we can help you with?”

“Perhaps, perhaps,” Aro said dismissively, waving a hand as he looked around. “But someone is missing! Where is the lovely Sasha?”

The sisters’ eyes met. Only for an instant, but I saw the confusion and the growing fear.

“We’re not sure,” Tanya admitted slowly. “Mother sometimes likes to do some travelling alone, and she does not keep us up to date with her whereabouts.”

“Really?” Aro sighed with theatrical disappointment. “What a _pity_ to miss her! I’m sure I’m quite devastated.”

“You had best not be lying.” Clearly exasperated with Aro’s gentle approach, Caius stepped in. His eyes were dark red and intent as he snarled at the three vampires. “I would think very, very carefully before you answer this time… _where is Sasha?_ ”

“We don’t know!” Tanya’s composure was beginning to tremble. “What is this about? Has something happened to Mother?”

“She gave you no clue about where she was going, and what she was doing there? You know nothing of her intentions?” Caius demanded, ignoring Tanya’s question.

“She said nothing.” Kate this time, her voice low. “We have not seen her for several moon cycles.”

Aro sighed and shook his head sadly, and Caius’ face looked tight with frustrated anger.

“Please tell us what this is about,” Tanya requested. “Perhaps there’s something we can do to help.”

Caius snorted. “There will be no help for your mother if what we have heard is true.”

“I’m afraid it is a very grievous matter.” Aro clasped his hands together. “We have had word that your mother has committed the ultimate crime and created a child.”

“NO!” The word came from the lips of all three, a desperate exclamation and plea, as they clutched each other with trembling hands. They each looked from face to face, searching for any lack of surprise that might indicated knowledge, but each beautiful face was blank with shock.

“Oh please, she wouldn’t!” Irina looked beseechingly at Aro. “I’m sure there is some other explanation.”

“We are on our way to investigate, and I’m sure if there is any other explanation we shall discover it,” Aro said consolingly. “Justice will be served, you can be sure of that, and if your mother is innocent then she has nothing to fear.”

One of the sisters moaned, and for a moment they held each other tight, whispering and glancing fearfully at Aro and Caius. I also noticed several quick, furtive glances in my direction.

“Of course,” Caius hissed, “We must first be sure that none of _you_ have any involvement in your creator’s abominable actions.”

There was a sudden sharp silence. _This_ was why we were here.

“Jane?” Caius said silkily and I stepped forward, wading through the deep snow and wishing I looked a little more dignified, before I stopped at his side. “Perhaps you would like to demonstrate to Tanya what shall happen to her if she is lying?”

Tanya’s face was uncomprehending as she looked at me. “But is this not…I thought she was the child in question!”

I had meant to be brief and to the point with my demonstration. I had not _intended_ to fire the pain receptors in her mind to the pitch of agony I did, but her accusation against me had enraged me.

_I am not a child!_

Tanya did not even scream. I don’t think she could, as she fell to the ground, her back bowed and her hands clawing great furrows into the icy ground. Both her sisters screamed as they saw her, and an uneasy murmur ran through the watching Volturi. Most of them had seen my talent in action only once or twice, and for vampires who never otherwise felt pain the sight was a deeply confronting one.

“No! Stop it!” It was Kate, and I watched in amazement as she surged out of her sister’s grasp and towards me. “Leave her!”

Effortlessly I turned my attention to Kate. She _did_ scream, the high, shrill shrieks echoing back from the snowy mountains around. Enough to start an _avalanche_ , I gloated. _Don’t you ever dare to threaten me._

“I believe they understand now sweetling.” Aro touched me gently on the shoulder and I stopped, looking up at him to seek his approval. He nodded at me and patted my cheek. “Thank you, little one.”

Irina had rushed forward and was helping her sisters stand in the snow. All of them were taut with fear and uncertainty as they looked towards us.

“You see, it will do no good to lie,” Aro said calmly. “We _will_ have the truth of what you know from you, and the punishment for untruth….well, you’ve only had a little taste of it.”

Tanya’s eyes were wide and she spoke fast. “We swear to you that we know nothing. Truly Aro, there must be a mistake, or a miscommunication, because I cannot believe that our mother would…not that!”

Aro held out his hands to them. “Come then, lay your hands in mine and we shall forgive each other for this misunderstanding then.”

The three sisters came forward. Their eyes on me were wary, and they stood as far from me as they could while Aro gathered their hands in his.

“Nothing,” he said to Caius, and I couldn’t tell if he was pleased or disappointed. “If Sasha has indeed done this, they know nothing.”

“Onwards then.” Caius scowled. I had no doubt that he would have been _quite_ happy to have the sisters found as liars! “I would like to see this matter settled.”

The three sisters stepped backwards towards their cave, only to come to a halt as Aro spoke their names. “Tanya, Kate, Irina…I’m afraid you must accompany us now. I believe it necessary that you see the truth of this matter, and witness justice being done.”

I watched indifferently as the horror grew on their faces. “Oh my lord, please no.”

“Oh yes,” Aro said sweetly. “She is your creator. Your _mother_ , you call her…you will come with us and see what she has done, and see how the Volturi deal out justice to those who break the rules.”

There was nothing they could do of course. Surrounded by massive Volturi guards, with me running silently alongside them, they had no choice but to accompany us as we followed Willamar’s tracking.

It was early evening when we found the first village. It was a tiny little hamlet on a snowy slope, but it was eerily quiet as we tramped through it, our tracks the only ones marring the perfection of the snow.

“What do you think happened?” I murmured to Alec. “I can smell the bodies.” Despite the freezing snow, the odour of dead humans was unmistakable in the apparently deserted village.

Alec shrugged, but then I saw his nostrils flaring. “There’s still someone here.”

He wasn’t the only one to have scented it, the sweet smell of a living human. Soon everyone was moving in a closely packed bunch towards the tumbledown dwelling that the scent was drifting from, the aroma quickly joined by the sound of a weak, slow heartbeat. No one had been hunting while we were running, and many of us were thirsty.

The entrance was narrow and most of the vampires were forced to crowd around outside the dwelling, only being able to listen to what was said inside. But I was small and determined enough that I could squirm my way to the front, under people’s elbows and ducking through gaps, until I was pressed up against Aro’s side and staring into the dark space, looking to see who was responsible for the heartbeat that thudded lightly in my ears.

It was an old woman, wrapped in so many blankets and furs she could barely be seen and sitting by the ashes of a dead fire. “Who’s there?” she called out querulously, turning her face with its blind white eyes towards the doorway. “I can hear you. Who are you and what do you want?”

“Why, we are just travellers wondering what has happened here,” Aro said, his voice kind. “You seem to be all alone, my good lady…where are your family?

“They’re gone…all of them, gone.” The woman’s voice was grief stricken.

“But how terrible!” Aro exclaimed. “For you to be left all alone is a dreadful shame. Who is responsible for this state of affairs?”

“It was a monster.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “He came to the village in the night. I heard them all screaming…there was crashing and the sound of things breaking, and shouting…and always the screaming…” The woman shuddered beneath her furs. “They didn’t come back. When the silence fell I waited for them until I couldn’t bear it, and then I crawled out into the snow. I found the bodies. I could feel the wounds in their skin…it must have all but torn them to pieces.”

“How long ago was this?” Aro asked.

“Three…four days.”

“Go and check those bodies,” Aro murmured to Felix and Appius. “Ensure they are all dead, and check for any evidence that any of them may have been transformed. I will not have an untaught newborn rampaging about the land alongside an immortal child!”

Felix and Appius shouldered their way through the crowd, and Aro turned his attention back to the crone. “Did you hear anything from this monster? Is there anything you can tell us that might help us identify this demon?”

The woman hesitated for a long time. “There was laughter,” she said at last. “I couldn’t hear well over the screams, but I heard laughter. I know it makes no sense, and it cannot be…but it sounded like a child.”

“Thank you my dear, you’ve been _most_ helpful,” Aro said brightly, turning away from her. Everyone stepped back to make way for him as he strode through the crowd. At the edge of it he turned back to me with a brilliant smile. “It would be cruel to leave the old woman here to slowly starve or freeze to death alone…sweetling, you may do what you will.”

I grabbed Alec’s hand and the two of us ignored the low rumble of discontent from the other vampires behind us as we slipped into the tiny dwelling.

Lightly I pushed the furs away from her face, tipping her head back to mine. Her milky, sightless eyes gazed just past me and her face contorted with fright as she felt the unnatural strength and iciness of my hands, and smelled my breath. Aro had told me that vampires smell delicious to humans, but I saw the way she registered that I could not be human and I doubted that I smelled all that nice to her in her fear.

“What?” she cried. “Who…”

Perfectly synchronised, Alec and I bit on opposite sides of her neck, and she was able to say no more.

Alec carried the body out of the hut when we were done, looking for the other bodies in order to dispose of it. We found them stacked together, the pile peculiarly neat, and the other vampires milling around it and talking amongst themselves.

A little warily, Alec added the old woman’s body to the pile, looking puzzled. “They’ve all been bitten,” he told me, when he was back at my side. “But I don’t know if that’s what killed them…there are lots of broken bones and some have pieces missing. But to be bitten and not killed means they could have been turned! It’s all just so careless, and yet someone has taken the trouble to pile the bodies together.”

“Let’s see what they’re saying,” I suggested, nodding at Aro and Caius who were conferring on little distance away. Alec nodded, and the two of us sidled closer.

Caius was more furious than I had ever seen him, so enraged that he seemed beyond words. Aro was shaking his head and making dramatic hand gestures as he exclaimed, “It’s all so disgracefully _careless!_ To create an immortal child and then allow them to do _this_! Almost _any_ of these wretched humans could have been turned from one of those bites and where would be _then_?”

“They must be found,” Caius said through gritted teeth. “They must be found and destroyed.”

“Of course, of course,” Aro sighed. He looked over at Alec and I. “You took care of the old woman? Thank you, dear ones. And you have looked around? You can clearly see why it is that we cannot allow this kind of creature to exist?”

“Does it not kill to feed?” Alec asked. “Some of those people looked liked they had barely been sipped from.”

“They kill recklessly, indiscriminately,” Aro answered. “They are, above everything, children and they are incapable of self discipline. They see a human and they want it so they take it, until the next human catches their eye and then they abandon one for the other. They play with the humans, but they break them and then rage because their toy is broken. They can destroy towns in tantrums and it is near impossible to pacify them.”

“Why would anyone _do_ it then? Why would you create something like _that_?!” I was revolted. A squalling brat demanding everything and throwing tantrums when they were thwarted? What on earth was the appeal?

Aro smiled at me fondly. “It seems madness, and it is. But these immortal children…they induce that madness. They are beautiful and beguiling and they arouse such love and devotion in their creators that they will do anything to protect them. Whole covens have been slaughtered because they would not, _could_ not, give up the infant.” His brows lowered. “So be careful my little ones…keep in mind always what it is that we are dealing here. Do not allow yourself to be seduced by their pleas and explanations. An immortal child is an abomination, and we cannot allow it to live.”

 


	23. The Immortal Child

Tanya, Kate and Irina had been made to accompany us through the grisly remains of the tiny settlement. Caius wanted them to see what their mother had done, to accept that she had behave criminally and that the Volturi was serving justice. I looked at them as they stood huddled together by the pile of bodies, their faces stricken as they faced the possibility that what Sasha had been accused of was true. The massacre had all the hallmarks of that of an immortal child, and the neat pile of corpses spoke to a creator making at least an effort to tidy up. The three girls clung to each other but said nothing as the evidence against their mother solidified.

 _Mother_.

I thought about the way they called her that. Why did they use that term? Sasha had created them and given them their vampire lives, but Aro had done the same for me and I did not call him _Father._ He was my creator and my lord and I was devoted to him, but still I didn’t call him _father._ Why was it different for them?

“Do you remember our mother?” I asked Alec uncertainly. “From…before?”

Alec frowned reflectively. “I think she had fair hair, like yours. I remember a song, and a ritual by a pool…it must have been something like the grotto, because that was where I was when I remembered it.”

I shrugged. None of Alec’s recollections aroused any answering memories in my mind.

“Sometimes I miss the sun,” he said unexpectedly. “The way it used to feel to lie in the sun on a summer day, with the bees buzzing. It’s the thing I remember most clearly, and the only thing I miss.” There was a faraway look in his clear red eyes. “Funny, isn’t it…it’s like I can control the darkness now, and yet what I really miss is the light.”

“I don’t miss anything,” I said flatly. “This is much better.” Suddenly bored with the seriousness of the situation and our conversation I grabbed Alec by the front of his robes and hurled him headfirst into a snowdrift twenty feet away.

“This…is…much…BETTER!” I shouted, laughing as I dove into the snow after him, and the two of us wrestled as we hadn’t done since the beginning, ignoring everyone around us as we fought and laughed together.

Our game was cut short when Caius demanded order. Willamar had found a trail, and immediately everyone converged and began to follow him. I ran beside Alec, and the wind from our speed soon dried my snow-dampened clothes.

We smelled the blood and heard the noise long before the little village came in sight. Screams of terror and pain rang out across the snow, accompanied by the exultant shrieks and high-pitched laughter of a child.

“The trail splits,” Willamar said, drawing to a stop at the edge of the village. “The child is that way, and the creator there.”

“I shall go with Willamar to capture the creator,” Caius declared. He looked at the big and brawny Volturi guards. “Appius, Flavius, Adelmar…you accompany me. Alec, you too. The creators of these immortal children will fight without any restraint when it comes to protecting them, and your ability to cut that short may come in useful.”

“I shall seek out the child,” Aro said. Unlike Caius’ icy, barely contained fury, Aro seemed to be looking at the situation as a grand adventure. “Heaven knows it’s going to be easy to find it…my, what a _noise_ that child is making!” His eyes swept the group of Volturi before he landed on me. “Sweetling, I think you may be of use to me if the child proves difficult. And Felix my friend, I would be delighted if you would accompany us.”

Felix and I moved to Aro’s side. Alec winked at me and went with Caius, and the other vampires separated into the two groups and we went off in our different directions.

We didn’t run now. We walked, Aro humming a little tune, as we followed the noise of crashing and laughing. We passed several bodies sprawled out on the ground, some still alive and calling weakly for help.

“My lord, would you have us take care of those?” Branka asked, indicating the bodies.

“Yes, we must,” Aro sighed. “We shall have to build a fire and burn them so that there can be no accidental transformation. If you could be so kind as to attend to that, I would be most grateful.”

Most of the vampires spread out through the village, finding bitten and mangled bodies and carrying them to centre of the village, where others were piling up wood to build a fire. Aro resumed humming, and then a smile spread across his face as the child came into view. “Well, well, well…just look at that.”

I was already staring. The child was only just past infancy, perhaps three years old, and he was the most entrancingly beautiful creature I had ever seen. He had bright red eyes and a cloud of blonde curls, and his perfect pale face had round cheeks and blood red lips drawn back in a smile as he looked over at me. His stood sturdily on chubby little legs beside a pile of bodies, and as I watched him he picked one up and sent it sailing through the air into a dwelling, causing it to crash down into a pile of splintering wood.

The little boy laughed and clapped his hands. “Smash!” he told me joyously. He reached for another body.

Aro chuckled as I stepped closer to the child and said sternly, “You shouldn’t be doing that.”

He looked up at me with an uncertain frown. “No smashing?”

“No.”

The child looked undecided, as though he was not sure whether to start screaming or not. But then he saw the silver bird clasp on my cloak, and stretched towards it.

“He seems to like you, Jane,” Aro said genially. “Such a _pity_ that these things are so intractable, because they really are quite delightful.”

Drawn to the child despite myself, I knelt down and let him approach. With an engaging smile he reached out and touched the silver clasp of my cloak, saying to me in his babyish, lisping tones. “Pretty birds. I want them.”

“You can’t have them,” I said indignantly. “They’re mine.”

The child scowled and yanked on the clasp, tearing it out of the fabric. “MINE!”

“Stop!” I was just about ready to show that child what happened to people who made me angry, but Aro’s hand on my shoulder stopped me.

“No need to fret over it. Let the baby have it…you don’t need it.”

His prize now safely gripped in his plump hands, the child gave me a sunny smile. “I’m hungry,” he said, dragging a body over and raising it to his mouth. The human he had in his grip was still alive, but clearly had several badly broken bones, and it didn’t live long once the little boy began feeding on it.

“It’s all gone,” he said sadly, shaking the human hard enough that more bones cracked. His face was smeared with blood. “All broken.” He tossed it aside.

From somewhere else in the village I began to smell the distinctive smell of burning flesh as the bodies were burned. The little boy smelled it too, raising his head and breathing in. “Mama?” he said uncertainly. “Where is Mama?”

“I’m sure Caius has found your mother,” Aro said with a beatific smile. “Shall we go and see?”

The boy nodded and then raised his arms up. I scowled at him as Aro’s laugh pealed out.

“The dear little one has taken quite the fancy to you sweetling! Perhaps you could indulge him and carry him over to Caius so that we might find a resolution for this unhappy situation.”

Half wanting to object, I lifted the child and settled him on my hip, wrinkling my nose as he smeared the blood from his face onto my shoulder. “Mama,” he demanded.  “I want my Mama.”

I carried his slight weight as we made our way to the centre of the little village. Around us were scenes of destruction, smashed houses and the bodies of the dead and dying scattered randomly. Beneath the noise of them I could hear heartbeats racing with fear, and I knew that there were other humans cowering in the dwellings, no doubt praying for rescue from the horrors that this child had wrought here.

As if there could be any rescue. As if anything could save them from the end to which the immortal child had condemned them.

The fire was in the open patch of earth before a slightly larger hovel than the others, and was burning fiercely bright and hot. I had to steel myself to keep my face smooth, and to move unhurriedly and without alarm past it. The child in my arms hid his face in my neck as the heat of the flames reached him.

“So hot,” he said plaintively. “Don’t like that.”

I didn’t answer. I could see the three sisters on the other side of the fire, their eyes horrified as they faced the scene in front of them. When they noticed me, and saw the child in my arms, they seemed to sag a little as they realised the irrefutable truth – there was an immortal child and their mother had created it.

Their mother was nearby, already caught and dragged to the fire to await sentence. She was as fair and beautiful as her daughters, although caught between the height and strength of Appius and Adelmar she seemed tiny and almost fragile. Her lip trembled as she saw her child in my arms, and I saw her mouth his name. _Vasilii._

“They caught her,” Felix muttered at my back. “Appius and Adelmar will get to tear her apart, which I suppose leaves this thing for me.” He looked wryly at the child in my arms. “Hardly a challenge.”

Without meaning to I found myself holding him a little tighter, as if to protect him. Felix didn’t notice the tiny movement, but Aro did.

“Remember what he is, sweetling,” he murmured, and there was ice in his tone. “Remember what he is…and _remember what you are.”_

I don’t know if the child sensed the danger, or if he simply caught sight of her for the first time, but at that instant he lurched in my arms and shrieked, “Mama!”

Sasha turned her head, and I instinctively recoiled from the anguish I saw in her face. This was a woman tormented, a mother who was facing the brutal truth of losing her child, and she was in agony. But her child was something that should never have been, and I straightened my spine and hardened my heart against her.

“Mama!” The child struggled briefly, but my arms held him like iron bars and I wasn’t going to let him go. His wriggling ceased, and he looked at me with sorrowful eyes and said plaintively, “I want Mama.”

Sasha moaned. “Oh Vasilii, sweet baby, don’t fret, Mama’s here, I’m here…” She turned pleading eyes towards Aro. “Please, please let me go to him!” she implored.

“Oh Mother!” It was Tanya’s anguished voice. “Mother, what did you _do?_ How _could_ you do this?”

“How could I not?” Sasha whispered, her eyes glittering with a strength of emotion that was near madness. “ _Look_ at him…such a perfect, beautiful baby! I have always wanted a child, always felt the emptiness of not having one…then I saw him, and I could no longer resist.”

For a moment she looked at her child and seemed to forget that she was being held, forget the fire burning and the death sentence hanging over her head. She looked at the child and her face was soft, and just for a moment I understood the word _mother._

“So you acknowledge your wrongdoing then?” Caius snarled. “You admit that you created this immortal child, this abomination that goes against all our laws?”

“He’s just a _baby_!” Sasha cried. “He’s only a baby…”

“Indeed he is,” Aro said soothingly. “Just a baby. But a baby that cannot be controlled or taught, and whose existence threatens us all.”

“He can learn,” Sasha whispered passionately. “I’m sure he can learn! He’s so clever, and so sweet…I’ll be firmer with him, I will, I swear I can make it work if you will only give him a chance!”

“There are no chances,” Caius said flatly. “He should never have existed.”

Sasha wailed again, completely overcome. In my arms the child was mashing the silver birds between his hands, his strength such that even the metal was no more than dough to him, and his lower lip was trembling as he watched his mama.

“You need only look around you to see what he has wrought,” Caius said, his words striking Sasha like a whip that she cowered beneath. “Unnecessary deaths and destruction, humans bitten and left to transform…it goes against everything the Volturi stands for! You know our kind has a duty to remain discreet, and these children are incapable of discretion! They are incapable of moderation, of control, of self discipline…they have no place in the world and we will not allow anyone to attempt to change that!”

Sasha raised her head. “I would have cleaned up,” she said hurriedly. “I know that he…that it’s a little messy, but…”

“A _little messy_?” Caius sounded strident in his disbelief. “It’s absolutely outrageous! And cleaning up…like you did in the last village?”

Sasha nodded stubbornly. “I did. I checked all the bodies and any that were at risk of transformation I burned. Vasilii is a good boy, he just needs to learn…”

“That is the issue though, is it not?” Aro enquired. Rather than accusing like Caius, Aro sounded merely interested. “That these children _cannot_ learn. They will spend their immortal lives completely intractable and uncontrollable, with an insatiable appetite for blood and destruction. They are not capable of the restraint and discretion that is necessary for a vampire of today. That is why we have laws against their creation, and that their very existence is forbidden.” Aro stroked a finger thoughtfully over the child’s round cheek. “Beautiful little monsters.”

Somehow Aro’s soft tones were a thousand times more menacing than Caius’ snarls, and I could see that Sasha was losing hope. But she held on long enough to beg, once again, for his life.

“Please…please spare him. I know that I have done wrong and I will accept any punishment, if you will only show mercy to him. Vasilii is a beautiful, sweet baby, if you get to know him you will love him too, I’m sure of it, oh please…”

“No.” Aro said simply. “There can be no mercy for something that should never have existed.” He looked to me, smiling his fearsome smile with his very white teeth, and there was a slight quirk of curiosity to his eyebrows as he said, “Jane?” His eyes slid to the fire.

I didn’t breathe or move as the request sank in. Aro wanted the child dead, the child in my arms, he wanted me to kill it and there was a fire and…

_He wants me to commit the child to the flames._

I suddenly remembered it with horrifying clarity. The choking smoke, and the flames licking at my skin, feeling the burn and smelling the scent of scorched flesh…oh no, oh no…

Aro was watching me intently. “Remember who you are, sweetling,” he said, his voice low. “Remember where your loyalty lies.”

I stared back at him, the stark white face and brilliant red eyes, the long dark hair swept back from his face. My lord, who had taken me in and raised me up from what I had been, who had given me the beauty and strength and immortality of the vampire. My lord, who had given me access to all the wealth and culture of Volterra. My lord, who valued my talents, who had made me his favourite and given me everything…he wanted just this one thing from me. This one little thing, to get rid of this child that should never have been created. Just one little movement and he’d be in the flames and it would be done, and I would have proved myself to Lord Aro, proved that I was really one of them and that he could trust me with anything…

I threw the child into the flames.  


	24. Fire and Dark

Sasha’s howl echoed across the clearing.

The vampire child himself vanished in the fire. There was no noise, no pained shrieking, nothing but thick clouds of purplish smoke that immediately began drifting from the fire.

I jumped as I felt a hand on my shoulder, but it was only Aro, leaning closer to me with a dazzling smile. “Well done, little one,” he murmured. “You have proved your loyalty here today, and that means a great deal. You have more than earned a place with us. I expected good things from you when Philippe brought you to my attention, but you have quite exceeded _all_ expectations…you have been like a delightfully unexpected and wonderful little gift!”

I smiled, the praise warming my heart. Already I had begun to push away the thought of the little boy held in my arms as he curled against me. It didn’t matter. He was dangerous, wrong… _should never have existed._ I didn’t have to feel guilty about following the law that had been laid down to protect _all_ vampires.

But I saw the piece of silver on the ground that had been the bird styled clasp on my cloak, now mashed into a round, lumpy ball that bore the clear imprint of a child’s small, plump hand, and I picked it up and slipped it into the front of my tunic.

The Volterra vampires were silent, pausing in their task of collecting up the humans both dead and alive. Everyone was focussed on Sasha, who was screaming and beating at the ground like one possessed.

“Enough!” Caius thundered. He glared at Aro, as though it was his fault that we were all still here, eyewitness to such grief. “We have wasted enough time here! Everyone knows what the penalty is for the creation of an immortal child!”

“No!” It was Tanya, obviously speaking on behalf of her sisters. “We know the consequences, but we ask you for mercy. Mother made a mistake…she will never do it again! She’s seen what results and she realises that she has done a heinous wrong. But I can promise you it won’t happen again. Please, please reconsider!”

“Reconsider?” Caius’ lip curled. “To what end? Make the Volturi look weak? Open the door for more deluded vampires to create these monsters? Your creator did wrong and she will stand as an example to all other vampires who would question the Volturi’s power and commitment to the law.”

I didn’t think Sasha cared what happened to her. I had never seen anyone so lost in the ravages of grief as this woman who had just watched her child creation burn. For the first time ever I saw a vampire cry, blood tears streaking her pale face as she sobbed and beat her fist against the earth.

I could tell by the sisters’ faces as they glanced from their mother to Caius to each other that they knew that they had lost, but Tanya tried one more time. “My lord, any punishment but that of the final death. Please. And people will speak of your mercy…”

Caius glared at them. “She knew the penalty. She chose to disobey and create the monster…she deserves neither compassion nor mercy.”

“Indeed.” Aro clicked his tongue, suddenly seeming bored of the whole situation. “There is only one outcome here. Sasha, you have disappointed me.” He shook his head sadly. “To have betrayed all your kind…you know what you deserve now.”

“Please,” Sasha whispered brokenly. “Please…oh, my baby boy, Mama is so very sorry…”

“Appius, Adelmar?” Aro flicked his fingers at them. “Take care of it.”

The two of them stepped closer and took a stronger grip on the delicate looking Sasha. Uncomfortable at the idea of a vampire’s vulnerabilities being exploited and the final death coming to one who should be immortal, I turned away slightly.

But although I could shield my eyes I could do nothing about my ears and I heard everything of Sasha’s final seconds. The noise of a vampire being dismembered was like rending stone. But even as loud and harsh as it was, it was drowned out by the scream Sasha emitted as she was torn limb from limb. A terrified shriek that cut off to nothing as the pieces were flung onto the fire, and she burned with the son she should never have made.

The silence was broken by grief-stricken cries from her daughters. But they were heartbroken rather than angry and, although they kept a sharp eye on them, Caius and Aro let them be.

“Empty the village,” Caius ordered loudly. “All humans to be killed, all bodies to be thrown on the fire. Feed if you are thirsty. But make haste…I wish to be back to Volterra as soon as possible.”

Alec and I were not thirsty, but neither were we comfortable so close to the fire. We slipped backwards, away into the darkness and sat on some large, smooth rocks, watching as the other vampires threw bodies onto the roaring flames.

“I had to use my gift to incapacitate her,” Alec told me. “She was so determined to go and rescue it…the child, I mean.” He looked pleased. “It was easier for everyone for me to simply remove her senses so that Appius and Adelmar could take over.”

“Did you like doing it? Do you like being involved and so important?” I asked.

Alec thought for a moment. “I do,” he said, sounding almost surprised. “It’s nice to be useful. It’s nice to be…special.” He looked at me. “What about you? What you did with the child…are you at peace with that?”

“It was what Lord Aro wanted of me,” I answered matter-of-factly. “It’s what we came here to do, and I did it. The rules and the consequences are clear and well known, and Sasha chose to break the most important one and so she paid the price. What we have done here today cements our place in the Volturi Alec. There can be no doubt about our loyalty and our willingness to act when necessary, and they have all seen the potential of our gifts. Really, I should practically be _grateful_ to Sasha for breaking the law and creating the child, because that created this opportunity for us.” 

“What do you think will happen to them?” Alec asked, indicating the three sisters still huddled together.

I shrugged. “They weren’t aware of what their creator was doing and are innocent of any wrongdoing. Lord Aro is a fair leader and they won’t be punished. I suppose they can go back to their cave and get on with their immortality.”

Alec half laughed. “Immortality…Janey, are you even half used to what we are now? How can we possibly really grasp what forever is going to be?”

“I like what I am now,” I said slowly, as the smile spread across my face. “I _love_ what I can do now…and I think immortality is going to be _quite_ satisfactory.”

The two of us grinned, and looked back at the vampires moving quickly around the fire. The sun was beginning to lighten the sky. “Should we go and help?” Alec asked.

I shook my head. “I’m not going to.” I stretched out on the rock, and reached into my tunic, bringing out the silver lump with the child’s handprint. It was so much smaller than mine, but then I thought how tiny my own hand looked in Aro’s and I shuddered.

“What is that?” Alec peered at it as I tossed it casually from hand to hand. “Oh, the clasp from your cloak…he ruined it.”

“Yes, he did.” My fingers caressed the indentation of the child’s fingerprints. “Some of them still see us as a child like him,” I said slowly, staring at the vampire shadows over by the fire.

“Do you _feel_ like a child?” Alec enquired. “Because I don’t.”

I frowned in thought. “I guess…I don’t either. Not now.” I gripped the lump of silver, squeezing it slowly and feeling it mould itself to the shape of my hand, erasing the impression of the immortal child’s hand. “Maybe I feel younger than them sometimes, but I don’t feel like a child. Look at all we’ve done since we came to Volterra.”

Alec’s face was bright. “Look at what we’ve learned. We’re not like the immortal children Janey, and they all know that. I think we’ve more than proven ourselves as being valuable members of the Volturi now.”

“Indeed you have, my little ones.” Aro appeared silently in front of us, trailed by Caius, Felix, Appius, Matilda, Willamar and a few others. He cupped Alec’s face in his hand and tilted it up as he smiled down at him. “Caius has informed me of how useful your talent was in subduing the criminal. I believe there can be no doubt now about your worthiness to be one of us.”

“You know how I feel about that,” Alec smiled guilelessly. “The Volturi means everything to Jane and me.” His eyes flicked towards me.

“You have both been a very welcome arrival.” Aro’s eyes, glowing crimson in the dawn light, swept across to me. “And of course, my sweetling…you have surpassed the expectations Philippe gave us about you. Was there ever any question that the pair of you were going to become so invaluable?”

I smiled at him, feeling my ability like a coiled snake of power deep within me. No, I didn’t think there had ever been any question that this was where I belonged. Maybe a tiny hesitation, back at the start, when I first woke. But I had been a silly vampire newborn then, I hadn’t known about the Volturi or understood about how special Lord Aro was and what an honour had been bestowed upon me…it was all different now. This is what I had been born for.

I glanced down at the lump of silver, smoothed by my hands, all traces of the child’s fingers gone from the malleable metal. Smiling, I tossed it lightly in the direction of the fire, watching it soar through the air and disappear into the flames. I didn’t need it now.

Caius agreed with Aro, for once smiling at me in a satisfied sort of way. “You have done well. Aro, Marcus and I are all in agreement that you belong with us.”

I glanced quickly at Alec. Why were they being so complimentary? Oh, Aro was _always_ extravagantly kind, but since when was _Caius_ one to acknowledge that something was done more than merely adequately?

Aro, never one to miss anything, saw the look and laughed gaily. “Always so suspicious, my little one!”

“You don’t need to say it, my lord,” I said, although the truth was I liked hearing the compliments. “Alec and I are devoted to you and fully committed to the Volturi. You need never doubt us.” And I offered him my hands.

For once he did not take them. “I do not need your hands sweetling,” he told me sincerely. “Not today…I have seen first hand your fealty, and what you will do for me, and I am honoured.”

“Thank you,” I said finally.

Aro grinned and waved his hands expansively. “Now I have a gift for each of you! We had these made while we were back in Volterra, but we wanted to be _absolutely_ sure that you deserved them…and you do.”

With a flourish Lord Aro took something from Felix, something that tumbled and unfolded from his hands, a thick fabric cloak, and oh! _So dark!_

“You know what this is?” Aro questioned.

Alec and I nodded wordlessly.

“You know what it means?”

“That we’re one of you,” I whispered. “That we will be members of the guard.”

“Members of the guard,” Aro repeated. “Very, _very_ important members…quite irreplaceable.” He smiled fondly. “And as a sign of your commitment, and of your important place with the Volturi, we have made you this.” And he reached out and swung the cloak over me.

As I felt the warm weight of the cloak settle onto my shoulders, the last remnants of my humanity drifted away. The cloak, the darkest in the guard and lighter only than the pure black worn by my lord Aro and Caius and Marcus, reflected the darkness within me. Here in this burning village my transformation had become complete, and I was what I was always meant to be- a vampire of Volterra.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N. And so ends the tale.  
> Forgive me for such an abrupt ending, but I felt that with Jane’s participation in this hunt and destroy mission she’s really come completely around to the idea of being a vampire. She’s given away the last of her humanity, and from now on she’s always going to be Aro’s right hand girl, doling out her special kind of justice. When it comes to Jane, the darkness wins and she revels in it.   
> I have to admit I did cheat with the timeline a little here. The Denali coven were not around until a couple of centuries later, but I felt that the storyline of Jane and the hunting and destroying of a immortal child shows how far she’s come from the innocent (if slightly bad tempered and cranky!) human girl. I thought this storyline would be more fun if I could bring in a few more characters that we know from the books so I borrowed the sisters and their mother and ill-fated brother and brought them back in time.   
> Anyway, I hope that you enjoyed this one. I would LOVE to know what you thought, what you liked and didn’t, now that it’s done!   
> And since writing all this darkness was quite disturbing, I’m going to go and cleanse my soul with a lovely new Rosalie and Emmett story, so keep an eye out for that!


End file.
